African leaders have adopted a new index that helps track progress in mass treatment of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Five NTDs — lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminths and trachoma — were added to African heads of states’ annual scorecard or index on disease progress last month (28 January), during the 30th African Union summit in Ethiopia.
The scorecard is reviewed by African heads of state every year, and the move puts NTDs alongside malaria and maternal and child health as top health priorities for the continent.
The index ranks African countries in their mass treatment coverage of the five NTDs. According to Christopher Fitzpatrick health economist at WHO’s Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases, it uses an estimate of the average percentage of the population covered by interventions against individual NTDs.
Read more at SciDev.Net
Image: US Army Africa from Vicenza, Italy via Wikimedia Commons
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