WHO meeting on progress of schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis global control towards the NTD road map targets and post-2030 strategies

Background

More than half of the endemic countries in the WHO African region region and 2 countries in the Eastern Mediterranean region have been implementing preventive chemotherapy for schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH) for more than a decade.

The meeting will address the need to conduct programme review, assess the impact, evaluate the needs to achieve 2030 roadmap targets and prepare endemic countries to new drug procurement strategies in a post-2030 scenario, with the aim of sustaining the progress achieved, and making public health recommendations for accelerating implementing of interventions.

Objectives

The objectives of the meeting are:

1. To review the impact of control interventions and country progress toward the 2030 road map targets set on schistosomiasis and STH in endemic countries, and make recommendations to address the bottlenecks and accelerate progress.
2. To present the criteria and procedure for STH and SCH elimination as a public health problem, and the post elimination surveillance to enable countries to submit their dossier for acknowledgment by WHO.
3. To present and share experiences on integration and sustainability strategies for an efficient use of the resources of the programmes.
4. To explore drug access and procurement, and prepare endemic countries to new drug procurement strategies post 2030 and beyond.
5. To identify global priority actions and make recommendations on the way forward.