A community health worker in Cote d’Ivoire takes a small blood sample to determine the presence of lymphatic filariasis antigen. Credit: FHI360, USAIDs Act to End NTDs | West program – Cote d’Ivoire
At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic health systems and health workers worldwide worked quickly to adjust how to provide care and continue routine health services while preventing further spread of disease.
One of the largest health outreach activities in the world is to people in communities at risk of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). NTDs persist in under-resourced areas, and in difficult-to-reach locations. And to prevent five of the most common of these disabling diseases, treatments must reach hundreds of millions of people annually. These treatment campaigns (called mass drug administration [MDA]) and routine surveys to measure the presence of disease are critically important interventions to help control and ultimately eliminate NTDs. COVID-19 only amplified countries’ struggles to safely reach these people with health services.
Adjusting distribution of medicines, surveys, and other interventions to be able to take place safely during the COVID-19 pandemic is and was no easy feat. Since distributing medicines requires close contact, governments and implementing partners had to analyze each step in the process, make adjustments, and consider how to build trust in the services while also taking into account local perceptions and any potential misinformation. Other challenges included a lack of or difficulties in understanding data, ever-changing safety mandates, and varied political responses to the pandemic itself.
USAID’s NTD Program and its partners have made it a priority to capture lessons learned during the COVID-19 context. The following technical resources, research, and stories based on country experiences are now available to help national NTD programs and global partners understand how to navigate in this new era. These materials were prepared by USAID and/or its funded programs Act to End NTDs | East and Act to End NTDs | West and the World Health Organization.
Technical Resources:
NTD Programming in the COVID-19 Era: How are we learning and adapting? (Act | East)
Practical Approaches to Implementing WHO Guidance for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Programs in the Context of COVID-19: Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) Survey (Act | East & Act | West) (French Version)
Trachoma Surveys: Practical Approaches to Implementing WHO Guidance for Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) Programs in the Context of COVID-19 (French Version) (Act | East & Act | West)
Practical Approaches to Implementing WHO Guidance for Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) Programs in the Context of COVID-19: Mass Drug Administration (MDA) (French Version) (Act | East & Act | West)
Learning & Research:
Compliance with COVID-19 Preventive and Barrier Measures during Recent MDA and DSA in Six Act | West Countries (Act | West)
Safely Resuming Neglected Tropical Disease Control Activities during COVID-19: Perspectives from Nigeria and Guinea (Act | West)
Restarting Neglected Tropical Diseases Programs in West Africa during the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons Learned and Best Practices (Act | West)
Mass Drug Administration for Schistosomiasis in the Context of COVID-19 (Act | West)
Stories:
Benin’s Campaign Like No Other: Mass Treatment for Neglected Tropical Diseases during the COVID-19 Pandemic (Act | West)
Guinea’s Neglected Tropical Diseases Program Treats 4.4 Million People in 14 Days, Despite COVID-19 (Act | West)
Can Lessons Learned from NTDs Inform COVID-19 Vaccine Campaigns? (Act | West)
Adapting in a Pandemic: Simple Innovations for Big Impact in Trachoma Elimination (Act | East)
Fighting Neglected Tropical Diseases in a COVID -19 World (Act | East)
Lessons from the Field: Restarting NTD Programs in a Pandemic (Act | East)