Intervention strategies
The manmade dam in Keranso, Shone Woreda in Hadiya Zone traps water from the previous rainy season. The pond is also home to freshwater snails that host schistosomiasis, otherwise known as bilharzia that may affect both humans and cattle.
WHO recommends five core strategic interventions to accelerate the prevention, control, elimination and eradication of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs):
- innovative and intensified disease management,
- preventive chemotherapy,
- vector control,
- veterinary public health, and
- provision of safe water, sanitation and hygiene
Past experience has demonstrated that while one intervention may predominate for the control of one specific disease or disease groups, a more effective impact on both morbidity and transmission results when interventions are combined and delivered simultaneously.
The five public health strategic interventions
to prevent, control, eliminate and eradicate NTDs
Individual disease management
The concept of innovative and intensified disease management was first devised almost two decades ago to tackle diseases that require individual-level care either because they are complex to manage or because effective diagnostic tools and medicines are unavailable.
Preventive chemotherapy
Preventive chemotherapy is the large-scale delivery of safe, single-administration, quality-assured medicines, either alone or in combination, at regular intervals, to entire population groups.
Vector control
Vector control serves as an important cross-cutting activity that aims to enhance the impact of other strategic interventions, with specific focus on prevention of selected NTDs whose transmission cycle relies on vectors or intermediate hosts.
Veterinary public health
Veterinary public health is a component of public health that focuses on the application of veterinary science as a contribution to the protection and improvement of human well-being.
WASH
Providing safe water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) is a key component of the revised global strategy and is critical for preventing and providing care for most NTDs.
Integrated approaches
One Health for NTDs
One Health is an integrated, unifying approach that aims to sustainably balance and optimize the health of people, animals and ecosystems. It recognizes that the health of humans, domestic and wild animals, plants, and the wider environment (including ecosystems) are closely linked and interdependent.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), the UN Environment Programme and the World Health Organization (WHO), known as the Quadripartite, are working together to promote cross-sectoral collaboration to address risks from zoonoses and other public health threats that exist or emerge at the human-animal-ecosystems interface.
Skin NTDs
Of the 20 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), more than half present with skin manifestations (the so‐called skin NTDs) and are often associated with long-term disability, stigmatization and mental health problems. The skin NTDs include Buruli ulcer,
cutaneous leishmaniasis, post-kala azar dermal leishmaniasis, leprosy, lymphatic filariasis (lymphoedema and hydrocele), mycetoma, onchocerciasis, scabies, yaws, and fungal diseases. They all require similar detection and case-management approaches
that present opportunities for integration, which both increases cost–effectiveness and expands coverage.
The major areas in which integrated approaches can be developed include community awareness, epidemiological surveillance and disease mapping, training for health workers and community health workers, and programme monitoring and evaluation.