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On January 30, 2021, countries across West Africa brought awareness to neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and the devastating effects they have on communities by celebrating the second annual World NTD Day.

January 30th is the second annual World Neglected Tropical Disease Day. Over one billion of the world’s poorest, most marginalized people are affected by neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), which often cause debilitating pain, illness, and lifelong disabilities. These diseases trap people in poverty and make it impossible for them to work, learn, or care for their families.

On October 8, 2020, Dr. Soro Kountelegona, Chief of Staff of the Ministry of Health of Côte d’Ivoire, did something that represents a milestone in the fight against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in West Africa. He convened a high-level meeting of representatives of various ministries in the Government of Côte d’Ivoire’s cabinet and presented a draft of the 2021–2023 national neglected tropical diseases sustainability plan to the cabinet as well as international and other national stakeholders for political validation, endorsement, and adoption. 

What does it take to distribute almost 20 million pills to over 4.4 million people in just 14 days? Planning, training, and mobilization of thousands of community drug distributors (CDDs)—key elements that programs targeting neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) must organize in a typical year. But this is not a typical year.

The close of the #NNN2020 annual conference, titled Accelerating to 2030: Building Resilient NTD Programmes in a Changing World, marked a changing of the guard in the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) NGO Network (NNN). On September 10, 2020, FHI 360’s Kisito Ogoussan became the 2020–2021 NNN chair, after serving as vice chair the previous year. As Dr. Ogoussan assumed his new position from the previous chair, Helen Keller International’s (HKI) Yaobi Zhang (who will now serve on the executive committee as immediate past chair), World Vision’s Arielle Dolegui simultaneously stepped into her new role as 2020–2021 NNN vice chair.

Although preparations had been underway for weeks, there were now just 72 hours to go before the 2020 mass drug administration (MDA) treatment campaign for two neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)—lymphatic filariasis (LF) and onchocerciasis—would begin in the four geographic areas (called communes) of Ouinhi, Covè, Zagnanado, and Za-Kpota—and the tension was almost palpable.

Le 27 juillet 2020, l'Organisation mondiale de la santé (OMS) a publié un nouveau document intitulé "Considérations relatives à la mise en œuvre de traitement de masse, de la recherche active de cas et des enquêtes communautaires pour les maladies tropicales négligées dans le contexte de la pandémie COVID-19", qui contient un cadre décisionnel pour le traitement de masse des maladies tropicales négligées (MTN), la recherche de cas et les enquêtes en population dans le contexte COVID-19.

On July 27, 2020, WHO published a new document, titled "Considerations for implementing mass treatment, active case‐finding and population-based surveys for neglected tropical diseases in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic," which contains a decision-making framework for NTD mass treatment, case-finding, and population-based surveys in the COVID-19 context.

Situation analyses are valuable because they give national NTD programs a more complete picture of where LF and trachoma morbidity management services are most needed, how well equipped the health system is to provide these services, and which gaps need to be filled to better reach people who need treatment and care.

On May 5, 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) published “Community-based health care, including outreach and campaigns, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic,” which includes updated guidance for neglected tropical diseases (NTD) programs, as well as other public health intervention programs.