Project to eliminate neglected tropical diseases launched
A project to help eliminate identified neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in Ghana by the year 2020, dubbed: ‘COUNTDOWN,’ has been launched in Accra.
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The COUNTDOWN project is a £7 million five-year initiative sponsored by the United Kingdom (UK) Department for International Development (DFID) which is being implemented in Ghana, Cameroon, Liberia and Nigeria to eradicate five out of the 17 World Health Organisation (WHO) identified NTDs.
The project will bring together neglected tropical disease researchers, policy makers, practitioners and implementation research specialists from the UK, United States of America (USA) and the four project countries to generate knowledge about the realities of increasing the reach of NTD treatment in different contexts.
Speaking at the launch, the Programme Manager in charge of NTDs of the Ghana Health Service (GHS), Dr Nana-Kwadwo Biritwum, disclosed that Ghana was endemic for 10 out of 17 WHO-focused NTDs and there was, therefore, the need to make everything possible to eliminate them.
COUNTDOWN project
Under the project, the five NTDs to be eliminated are lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis (bilharzia), intestinal worms and trachoma.
Dr Biritwum said all the five diseases under the “COUNTDOWN” project were present in Ghana.
Need attention
The Minister of Health, Mr Alexander Segbefia, in a speech read on his behalf, said NTDs had not been given the needed attention.
He said sustaining the elimination of NTDs from the country would be attained if the needed social amenities were provided in communities.
Mr Segbefia said NTDs were developmental issues which needed to be solved at the inter-ministerial level and added that one ministry could not tackle it alone.
The Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, Dr Ebenezer Appiah Denkyira, in a welcome address said there was the need to tackle NTDs in the country before they became an epidemic.
He called for more public education on the diseases to ensure that people were made aware of their devastating effects.
Overview of project
A consultant from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), one of the implementors of the “COUNTDOWN” project, Ms Julie Irving, giving an overview of the project, said the project would, among other things, help to identify implementation problems hindering access to interventions, delivery of services or usability of evidence-based interventions.
Dr Joyce Aryee, an Ambassador for the “COUNTDOWN” project, who chaired the launch, said although NTDs were not fatal, their effects made people who were infected less productive and, therefore, unable to contribute to the socio-economic development of the country.
She, therefore, called for more efforts to ensure that the five NTDs under the project were eliminated by the set target time.