SANTD & SDC webinar | Partnership in the fight against NTDs in the next decade: what kind of innovation?
Swiss Alliance against NTDs (SANTD) and Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) webinar: With 2020 marking the end of the current WHO strategy on NTDs, it is time to review the activities of the past and the opportunities of the future.
- With the COVID-19 outbreak and the approbation of the new WHO NTD roadmap, the event will highlight the transition from diseases-specific approaches to cross-cutting collaborations and the importance of the determinants of health in the fight against NTDs.
- Present success stories and discuss a transition into the more ambitious strategic thinking of the new Roadmap.
Programme
Segment I – Introduction on NTDs challenges ahead
- Dr Dirk Engels (Uniting to Combat NTDs) - Review of the last WHO Roadmap on NTDs
- Dr Mwele Malecela (WHO) - Introduction to new WHO Roadmap on NTDs
- Dr Anthony Man (Novartis): Challenges in Development of Innovative Therapeutics for NTDs.
Segment II – Deep-dive in concrete interventions
Human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness)
Sleeping sickness threatens millions of people in 36 countries in sub-Saharan Africa. Without treatment, the disease is considered fatal. Many of the affected populations live in remote rural areas with limited access to adequate health services, which complicates the surveillance and therefore the diagnosis and treatment of cases.
Project Flash
- Dr Olaf Valverde (DNDi) & Dr Joseph Ndungu (FIND) - Multi-dimensions of access: how to address some of the bottlenecks.
Schistosomiasis
More than 240 million people worldwide require treatment and around 200,000 die from complications each year. Morbidity due to schistosomiasis has been greatly reduced over the past decade in some parts of the world thanks to increased control efforts of local NTD programs, international implementation partners and the increased availability and donation of praziquantel. To sustain and advance the gains made to date there is a need for cross-sectorial approaches including R&D of new medical products, WASH and community-based behavior change approaches.
Project Flash
- Dr Jutta Reinhard-Rupp (Merck Global Health Institute) - From donation to sustainable procurement of medical products (Praziquantel): what kind of (fair) partnership are we looking for?
- Dr Stefanie Knopp (Swiss TPH) - Novel tools and strategies for breaking schistosomiasis transmission
Segment III – Cross-sectorial interventions in the fight against NTD and the COVID – 19 pandemic: what room for innovation?
- Dr Mwele Malecela (WHO)
- Dr Lutz Hegemann (Novartis)
- Dr Alexander Schulze (SDC)
- Dr Peter Steinmann (Swiss TPH)