The World Health Organization (WHO) on Tuesday said it has launched a program to help African countries reduce the burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).
The Expanded Special Project for Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases (ESPEN) will be managed by the WHO Regional Office for Africa, in partnership with African governments, donors, NGOs and pharmaceutical companies. It will run from 2016 to 2020.
Xinhua reports WHO’s Regional Director for Africa, Dr. Matshidiso Moeti, to say that the program will provide national NTD programs with technical and fund-raising support to help the African countries control and eliminate the five NTDs with the greatest burden on the continent, which collectively affect hundreds of millions of people.
“ESPEN will make sure national NTD programs have the data, expertise and financial resources they need to accelerate the fight against these diseases,” Moeti said in a statement received in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.
NTDs are a group of diseases that place a constant and heavy burden primarily on the poorest, most marginalized and isolated communities in the world. Forty percent of the global burden of NTDs is in Africa.
