Fifteenth report of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases (STAG-NTDs)

Overview

The fifteenth meeting of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases (STAG-NTD) was held virtually on 7–8 February 2022.

COVID-19 is continuing to impact the work of the Organization and its Member States, putting additional pressure on health systems as they try to implement the new NTD road map for 2021–2030. Since the previous (fourteenth) meeting (22–June 2021), a new platform has been launched and World Neglected Tropical Diseases Day was commemorated on 30 January 2022. A lot more remains to be done, however. Diagnostics and leishmaniasis are on the agenda for the present meeting, but stronger health systems will be critical to achieving the NTD goals.

Professor David Mabey, chairperson of STAG-NTD, said that the purpose of the meeting was to review the impressive progress made by the Diagnostic Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases (DTAG) and the status of programmes on visceral leishmaniasis (VL) in Africa and South America.

Professor Lucille Blumberg, Centre for Emerging, Zoonotic and Parasitic Diseases, South Africa, and Dr Albis Francesco Gabrielli, Strategic Information and Analytics, WHO Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (WHO/NTD), were appointed rapporteurs.