By Maxwell Awumah
Ho, June 6, GNA-A multidisciplinary research team, led by Professor John Owusu Gyapong Immediate Past Vice-Chancellor, University of Health and Allied Sciences, has published an excellent review article in a highly ranked international journal.
The paper titled, “Current State and Future Directions of Interventions for Neglected Tropical Diseases” was published in Nature Human Behaviour on June 4, 2025.
This is the first time a UHAS-affiliated team has appeared in this prestigious journal, underscoring the institution’s growing excellence in global health research.
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) continue to impose severe health, social, and economic burdens on millions in low-resource regions.
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) specifically carries about 40 per cent of the global NTD burden, with approximately 600 million people requiring treatment.
Endemic countries such as Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo and Ethiopia have high burdens of NTDs such as onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis and schistosomiasis.
Globally, over one billion people are affected by at least one NTD and in 2019, an estimated 552 million cases of NTDs were recorded worldwide, reflecting a 29 per cent reduction since 1990.
NTDs often lead to chronic health conditions, severe disability and even death.
In their new paper, Prof. Gyapong, the principal investigaor and colleagues reviewed existing strategies—such as preventive chemotherapy, innovative disease management, vector control, and WASH (water, sanitation, and hygiene)—and argue that sustained political commitment, innovative financing, and integrated health-system approaches are essential to eradicate NTDs by 2030.
According to Prof Gyapong, “This narrative Review examines the current state of and future directions for interventions aimed at controlling, eliminating and eradicating neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).”
“We provide an overview of these diseases, their epidemiological burden, and their social and economic impacts, while highlighting the role of the global coalition in combating them and reviewed current interventions by examining their successes, challenges, financing mechanisms and sustainability strategies.”
Additionally, “We discuss the role of implementation research, community engagement and involvement (CEI), and human behaviour, and we emphasize the importance of integrating NTD control into existing health systems to support long-term sustainability,” he added.
Prof Gyapong said understanding the complex interplay between human behaviour, social norms and cultural practices was important in developing interventions that promoted treatment adherence, health-seeking behaviour and community participation.
“Because human behaviour affects treatment adherence, health-seeking behaviour, and community participation, it is fundamental to the success of these interventions,” the authors write.
Their analysis shows that genuine community involvement drives both sustainability and ownership of NTD programmes at the local level.
The paper highlights significant gaps in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, calling for context-specific strategies that address logistical barriers, funding constraints, donor dependency, stigma, and emerging drug resistance.
“Future directions for the global programme must prioritise funding and resource allocation, strengthened health systems, innovative research and development—including AI-driven diagnostics—integrated approaches, and community engagement and involvement (CEI) to sustain and accelerate progress in NTD control and elimination,” the authors said.
The researchers concluded, despite major progress made on NTDs over the past few decades, driven by a combination of innovative interventions, global partnerships and increased advocacy, the disease continue to pose a substantial public health challenge, especially in low- and middle-income countries.
They determined that persistence of these diseases is exacerbated by factors such as poverty, inadequate health-care infrastructure and climate change intensified by the COVID-19 pandemic, which further highlighted the vulnerabilities of health systems and the need for resilient and integrated approaches.
They established that lessons learned from successful interventions highlight the importance of CEI, cross-sectoral collaboration, and sustained political and financial commitment with Community-directed treatment demonstrating the effectiveness of empowering community members towards ending NTDs.
Recommendation
To accelerate progress in controlling and eliminating NTDs, the researchers recommended essentially to increase funding and resource allocation to support NTD control and elimination strategies, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and South Asia.
The research advocated for strengthening health systems, including health-care infrastructure, workforce and supply chain management, which are essential to ensuring the sustainability of NTD control and elimination efforts.
It said enhancing cross-sectoral collaboration among different sectors, including health, education, agriculture and WASH, could help to address the complex determinants of NTDs and promote a more comprehensive approach to NTD control and elimination is apt for the elimination drive.
It suggested developing and implementing innovative diagnostics, including AI-driven diagnostics, in the medium term could improve disease detection and treatment, while integrating NTD interventions with broader health systems can help to achieve long-term sustainability and health equity.
It recommended addressing logistical barriers and funding constraints is essential to ensuring sustained NTD control and elimination, while promoting sustainable financing mechanisms (including domestic financing and innovative financing models) could help to reduce dependence on external funding.
In the long term, it endorsed achieving universal health coverage as necessary to ensuring that all individuals have access to essential health services, including NTD diagnosis and treatment in line with the WHO road map for NTD, which requires sustained investment in control and elimination strategies.
The Research team, comprised, Professor John Owusu Gyapong, Team Lead, Secretary-General of the African Research Universities Alliance; clinical epidemiologist and leading NTD expert, Mawuli Gohoho, Field Epidemiologist & Senior Public Health Officer for Disease Control and Surveillance, Jasikan Municipal Health Directorate, Dr. Alfred Kwesi Manyeh, Epidemiologist, Implementation Scientist & Director, Centre for Neglected Tropical Diseases Research, Institute of Health Research (IHR), UHAS, Dr. Mustapha Immurana, Health Economist & Director, Centre for Health Policy and Implementation Research, IHR, UHAS and Professor Margaret Gyapong, Medical Anthropologist, Implementation Research Scientist & Immediate Past Director, IHR, UHAS.
GNA
Edited by: Maxwell Awumah/Christian Akorlie