LSTM staff and partners joined more than 800 participants from 86 countries, for the first global meeting on skin neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), hosted by the World Health Organisation (WHO) at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on 27-31 March 2023.
The theme of the meeting “integration for greater impact”, reflects LSTM’s ongoing work, specifically the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) funded REDRESS research programme, working directly with the Liberian Ministry of Health, to integrate health system approaches to managing skin diseases, moving beyond single disease programmes and approaches to ensure that no one is left behind.
The meeting explored how to improve integrated case management of skin NTDs, using cross-cutting approaches to increase cost effectiveness and expand coverage across the health sector. Discussions at the meeting covered advances in research and plans for implementing the WHO skin NTD framework. The strategic framework for integrated control and management of skin related NTDs is a companion document to the NTD road map, developed in response to critical actions identified to reach the 2030 targets. It addresses many of the challenges and opportunities for implementing an integrated approach to the control and management of skin NTDs.
Representatives from civil society, ministries of health, government, non-governmental organisations, funders, and research institutions, shared progress, challenges, and opportunities for integration in countries, including the status of training tools, technological innovations, diagnostics and treatments, disability, mental health and rehabilitation. LSTM’s Professor Ymkje Stienstra led a meeting on operational research, on the final day.
LSTM and the REDRESS programme had the opportunity to take to the floor to share research findings. This included: Dr Laura Dean, LSTM Lecturer and REDRESS Co-principle investigator, who’s presentation: integrated person-centred approach to the identification, referral, diagnosis and management of skin NTDs highlighting findings from multi-disciplinary evaluation, emphasized the need to co-produce health systems approaches to address the complex problem of skin-NTDs. Carrie Barrett, LSTM PhD student, presented on depression and quality of life amongst persons affected by filarial lymphoedema: determining socio-demographic and clinical risk factors, and the impact of an enhanced self-care treatment. Hannah Berrian, REDRESS Research Fellow, presented: informal health providers roles in addressing stigma and mental needs among people affected by skin NTDs in Liberia. Dr Karsor Kollie, Liberian NTD Programme Director and REDRESS in-country principal investigator presented: a multi method evaluation of health services integration for NTDs requiring case management in Liberia.
Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Director General of WHO, who attended the closing session of the meeting, gave an inspiring speech and committed to follow up on the meeting asks presented to him. He stated his dedication to ensuring that NTDs are better supported by WHO in terms of resources, policy and advocacy and agreed to support discussions for the inclusion of NTDs in the Global Fund to facilitate access to sustainable funding for countries.