PHM-Exch> Fwd: [g2h2-members] Funding for ‘neglected tropical diseases’ (NTDs) has collapsed since the Covid pandemic

[Claudio Schuftan]

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From: <dlegge at phmovement.org>
Date: Fri, Jan 19, 2024 at 1:43 PM

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Funding for ‘neglected tropical diseases’ (NTDs) has collapsed since the
Covid pandemic

Members of WHO’sExecutive Board meeting in Geneva next week will consider a
new report (EB154/11
<https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=491eaf0eec&e=5f3cea0f3e>)
which documents the “rapid decrease in funding to combat NTDs”. The report
states that this is now the most urgent barrier to progress. The erosion of
the funding base for NTDs is among the most important of the issues for the
Executive Board’s discussion, as it represents a clear waste of previous
financial commitments and a prolongation of the suffering of nearly one
billion people from diseases with known preventions and treatments. The
coverage of preventive chemotherapy has sharply decreased in the wake of
the Covid pandemic.

WHO’s member states must decide if NTDs are to be continued to be neglected
with insufficient resources or if WHO is to be supported with sufficient
funding to implement the NTD Road Map.

The report describes a medicines regime which depends on pharmaceutical
partners to expand donations. This may work where elimination is an
immediate goal, but in most cases, this is not sustainable and not a
substitute to affordable local manufacture and procurement. It is also
uncertain whether appeals to big pharma is going to be enough to direct new
investment into innovations of new medicines or new combinations of
existing medicines.  In some NTDs, such as snake-bite both diagnosis and
care is based on approaches which are close to a century old. The global
intellectual property rights regime and the dependence of drug development
funding on monopoly (IPR protected) profit is not generating the next
generation of diagnostic tools and medicines to prevent and respond to NTDs.

The latest report does not address the wider social determinants of NTDs,
including urban development, water management, and occupational health and
worker rights. Conflict, drought and migration are also emerging threats to
the control / elimination of NTDs but are not addressed in the report.
However, each NTD has its own set of proximate and intermediate
determinants and addressing these require planned action at both the
primary care and the community level, as well as intersectoral action.
These cannot be constructed as 21 vertical programmes. The need is to build
successful models for addressing NCDs which is fully integrated within
equitable development and comprehensive primary healthcare.

PHM urges member States to:

   1. Support WHO with resources necessary to enable the elimination of all
   21 NTDs by 2030;
   2. Prioritize social interventions to prevent or address NTDs, alongside
   chemotherapy and other biomedical interventions;
   3. Focus on ensuring that regional and local plans address each of these
   21 diseases where they constitute a public health priority;
   4. Prioritise the integration of NTD programs with strengthened CPHC so
   that the reductions are sustainable;
   5. Ensure that calls for eradication are supported by evidence of
   cost-effectiveness and sustainability.



The full PHM commentary on this item (here
<https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=eed67a0718&e=5f3cea0f3e>)
provides more detail and references. See also Tracker links to previous
discussions of NTDs
<https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=107ac0f3cb&e=5f3cea0f3e>
.

The WHO Tracker and PHM item commentaries are produced as part of *WHO
Watch* which is a project of the People's Health Movement
<https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=f6468a49fc&e=5f3cea0f3e>
in association with Medicus Mundi International
<https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=8785c24190&e=5f3cea0f3e>,
Third World Network
<https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=0be257f21b&e=5f3cea0f3e>
and a number of other civil society networks. WHO Watch contributes to
democratising global health governance, through new alliances, new
information flows and by broadening the policy discourse.

See the WHO Tracker page for this EB154 session (here
<https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=b234cd59b9&e=5f3cea0f3e>).
See PHM’s integrated commentary
<https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=0d06b91d09&e=5f3cea0f3e>
on the full agenda of EB154 (or read the flipbook version
<https://phmovement.us20.list-manage.com/track/click?u=559d715f58f654accf3de987e&id=f91d2d9af7&e=5f3cea0f3e>).
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