Additional funding is needed to finance neglected tropical diseases

Professor David H. Molyneux, badociate professor at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, called for the consolidation of financial resources and the activation of research systems on new drugs, diagnostic tools and diagnostics. increased surveillance to stem the threat of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).

He added that this had become necessary for the control, elimination and eradication of neglected tropical diseases in order to facilitate the achievement of universal health coverage and the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Professor Molyneux spoke at the Fourth Leadership Lecture Series of the University of Allied Health and Sciences (UHAS), in memory of the late President John Evans Atta-Mills, on the main campus of University, under the main theme "Neglected Tropical Diseases: The Evolution of a New Paradigm in Health and Development".

He said that NTDs should be an agenda to update the OBD 2030 calendar and urged all stakeholders to consider the disease from the perspective of poverty, equity and the environment. gender, to strengthen health systems, human rights, innovation, new product development, increased advocacy and links to other diseases for UHC.

The World Health Organization has listed more than 20 diseases among NTDs, including: Chagas, Schistosomiasis, Ascariasis, Trachoma, Dengue, Leprosy, Sleeping Disease, Leishmaniasis, Lymphatic Filariasis, Onchocerciasis (River Blindness), Yaw , Buruli ulcer, Rails, Carpet, Dracunculiasis, Scabies and hookworm with rabies and snake bites being the latest additions.

World leaders, including Africa, have strengthened their position on the eradication of the disease, including by increasing funding and monitoring, in line with the WHO roadmap titled Declaration neglected tropical diseases in London, giving priority to sustained and expanded measures to detect, prevent and control the disease. disease by 2020.

NTDs are a group of diseases that affect one billion of the world's poorest and most marginalized people, including 650 million Africans.

They make sick, disable and disfigure victims, preventing children from going to school, parents from working and communities in cycles of endless poverty.

Professor Molyneux discussed the security and conflict issues affecting access to health systems, the government's lack of commitment to recognizing the links between NTDs and poverty, the risks of drug resistance, and insecticides, the limited capacity of health professionals, which is a barrier to progress in the control and elimination of NTDs. .

He said the inefficiency and waste of drugs from the budget allocation to the consumer continued to decline, from $ 90 to $ 12, resulting in inadequate purchasing practices, non-compliance by the patients, irrational prescriptions, problems of supply and distribution and problems of qualification.

Professor Molyneux has called for a focus on the "poorest billions", who are most at risk, citing a LANCET statistic describing only 0.6% of foreign development aid for neglected tropical diseases, although these diseases affect one billion poor people.

He said progress had been made in eliminating filariasis in China, onchocerciasis in West Africa and Chagas in the Americas, stressing that sustained collective efforts could halt MTN.

Professor John Owusu Gyapong, Vice Chancellor, UHAS, stated that the University Leadership Lecture series was designed to encourage students to aspire to more advanced laurels and to set up mentoring systems that would students and health workers to reflect on the core values ​​of the health profession. .

The institution of annual lecture series in the academic calendar of universities at the national and global levels was aimed at recognizing people's values, celebrating their hard work, preserving and protecting their intellectual property.

Professor Gyapong described JEA Mills as an academic icon, a statesman, a political leader, a Ghanaian and global law and tax luminary who created the UHAS in 2011.

He called for flexibility in the use of funding lines targeted by health professionals, for example the disbursement of global funds for the management of malaria, tuberculosis and HIV / AIDS, stressing the fact that that NTD management could be integrated with health services to achieve universal health coverage.

Present at the conference were Board members and Chairperson, Judge Jones Mawulorm Dotse, Supreme Court Justice of Ghana, academics and health experts, Dr. Archibald Letsa, Regional Minister for Health Volta and his deputy, the Reverend Johnson Avuletey, as well as students from UHAS University and High Schools of the Municipality of Ho.