132nd session Agenda item 9.2
EB132.R7 28 January 2013
Neglected tropical diseases The Executive Board, Having considered the report on neglected tropical diseases, 1
RECOMMENDS to the Sixty-sixth World Health Assembly the adoption of the following resolution: The Sixty-sixth World Health Assembly, Having considered the report on neglected tropical diseases, and recalling the previous World Health Assembly resolutions listed therein; Recognizing that increased national and international investments in prevention and control of neglected tropical diseases have succeeded in improving health and social well-being in many countries; Noting WHO’s roadmap to accelerate the work to overcome the global impact of neglected tropical diseases2 and the subsequent London Declaration on Neglected Tropical 3 Diseases endorsed by a community of partners; Acknowledging the linkages between, and mutual supportiveness of, control and elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases and the Global Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property; Acknowledging that expansion of activities to prevent and control neglected tropical diseases will need adequately resourced national programmes functioning within effective health, education and other sectors in order to provide for an uninterrupted supply and delivery of quality-assured commodities and services; Realizing that current approaches to the prevention and control of neglected tropical diseases, when implemented in an integrated manner and across all relevant sectors, are highly effective and contribute to stronger health systems and the achievement of the health-related Millennium Development Goals, but that there are still many challenges;
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Document EB132/19.
Accelerating work to overcome the global impact of neglected tropical diseases: a roadmap for implementation. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2012 (document WHO/HTM/NTD/2012.1). London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases. London, 30 January 2012 (available at: http://search.who.int/search?q=london+declaration&ie=utf8&site=default_collection&client=_en&proxystylesheet=_en&out put=xml_no_dtd&oe=utf8; accessed 22 October 2012). 3
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Appreciating the generous contribution of pharmaceutical companies in donating sufficient quantities of quality-assured essential medicines for the prevention and treatment of neglected tropical diseases, while acknowledging the need to ensure their continuous availability and affordability; Recognizing the contribution of bodies in the United Nations system, intergovernmental and nongovernmental organizations, academic institutions and civil society; Recognizing the diversity of neglected tropical diseases, their causative agents and relevant vectors and intermediate hosts, their epidemic potential (such as for dengue, Chagas disease, human rabies of canine origin, and leishmaniasis), and their morbidity, mortality and associated stigmatization, 1. URGES Member States: (1) to ensure country ownership of programmes for neglected tropical disease prevention, control, elimination and eradication; (2) to expand and implement, as appropriate, interventions against neglected tropical diseases in order to reach the targets agreed by all partners in the London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases and set out in WHO’s roadmap for accelerating work to overcome the global impact of neglected tropical diseases by: (a) ensuring that resources match national requirements and flow in a sustainable manner as a result of thorough planning and costing of prevention and control activities and detailed analysis of associated expenditures; (b) enabling improvement of the management of the supply chain, in particular through forecasting, timely procurement of quality-assured goods, improved stock-management systems, and facilitating importation and customs clearance; (c) integrating neglected tropical diseases control programmes into primary health care services and vaccination campaigns, or into existing programmes where feasible, in order to achieve greater coverage and reduce operational costs; (d) ensuring appropriate programme management and implementation through the development, sustenance and supervision of a cadre of skilled staff (including other sectors than health) at national, district and community levels; (3) to advocate predictable, long-term, international financing for the control of neglected tropical diseases; to enhance and sustain national financial commitments, including resource mobilization from sectors other than health; and to strengthen capacity for prevention and control of neglected tropical diseases, strengthening research, in order to accelerate implementation of the policies and strategies designed to achieve the targets set by the Health Assembly in various resolutions related to specific neglected tropical diseases as well as in the roadmap and the London Declaration; (4) to strengthen national capacity for monitoring and evaluation of the impact of interventions against neglected tropical diseases;
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(5) to devise plans for achieving and maintaining universal access to and coverage with interventions against neglected tropical diseases, notably: (a) to provide prompt diagnostic testing of all suspected cases of neglected tropical diseases and effective treatment with appropriate therapy of patients in both the public and private sectors at all levels of the health system including the community level; (b) to implement and sustain coverage with preventive chemotherapy1 of at least 75% of the populations in need, as a prerequisite for achieving goals of disease control or elimination; (c) to improve coordination for reducing transmission and strengthening control of neglected tropical diseases through provision of safe drinking-water, basic sanitation, health promotion and education, vector control and veterinary public health; 2. CALLS upon WHO’s international partners, including intergovernmental, international and nongovernmental organizations, financing bodies, academic and research institutions, civil society and the private sector: (1) to support Member States, as appropriate: (a) to provide sufficient and predictable funding to enable the targets for 2015 and 2020 to be met and efforts to control neglected tropical diseases to be sustained; (b) to harmonize the provision of support to countries for implementing a national plan based on WHO-recommended policies and strategies and using commodities that meet international quality standards; (c) to promote universal access to preventive chemotherapy, and diagnostics, case management, and vector control and other prevention measures, as well as effective surveillance systems; (2) to encourage initiatives for the discovery and development of new diagnostics, medicines, vaccines, and pesticides and biocides, improved tools and technologies and other innovative instruments for vector control and infection prevention and to support operational research to increase the efficiency and cost–effectiveness of interventions, taking into account the Strategy and Plan of Action on Public Health, Innovation and Intellectual Property; (3) to collaborate with WHO in order to provide support to Member States in measuring progress towards, and in accomplishing, their goals of elimination and eradication of selected neglected tropical diseases;
1 Preventive chemotherapy means large-scale preventive treatment against helminthiases and trachoma with safe, single-dose, quality-assured medicines.
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REQUESTS the Director-General: (1) to sustain WHO’s leadership in the drive to overcome neglected tropical diseases;
(2) to support the development and updating of evidence-based norms, standards, policies, guidelines and strategies and research for prevention, control and elimination of neglected tropical diseases in order to chart a course for reaching the related targets set in resolutions of the Health Assembly; (3) to monitor progress in achieving the targets for neglected tropical diseases set in WHO’s roadmap for accelerating work to overcome the global impact of neglected tropical diseases, and to provide support to Member States in their efforts to collect, validate and analyse data from national surveillance systems; (4) to provide support to Member States to strengthen human resource capacity for prevention, diagnosis and control of neglected tropical diseases, including vector control and veterinary public health; (5) to encourage and support initiatives to discover and obtain new diagnostic tools, medicines and insecticides, and supports operational research to increase the efficacy and cost–effectiveness of interventions; (6) to report to the Sixty-eighth World Health Assembly on progress towards the elimination and eradication of targeted diseases, through the Executive Board.
Thirteenth meeting, 28 January 2013
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