02129nas a2200229 4500000000100000008004100001653001500042653003900057653002800096653004100124653003000165100001600195700001100211700001400222700001600236700001500252245019200267856004600459300000800505520137200513022001401885 2018 d10aDisability10aNeglected tropical diseases (NTDs)10apreventive chemotherapy10aSustainable Development Goals (SDGs)10aUniversal health coverage1 aMolyneux DH1 aDean L1 aAdekeye O1 aStothard RJ1 aTheobald S00aThe changing global landscape of health and disease: addressing challenges and opportunities for sustaining progress towards control and elimination of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). uhttps://doi.org/10.1017/S0031182018000069 a1-83 a

The drive to control neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) has had many successes but to reach defined targets new approaches are required. Over the last decade, NTD control programmes have benefitted from increased resources, and from effective partnerships and long-term pharmaceutical donations. Although the NTD agenda is broader than those diseases of parasitic aetiology there has been a massive up-scaling of the delivery of medicines to some billion people annually. Recipients are often the poorest, with the aspiration that NTD programmes are key to universal health coverage as reflected within the 2030 United Nations sustainable development goals (SDGs). To reach elimination targets, the community will need to adapt global events and changing policy environments to ensure programmes are responsive and can sustain progress towards NTD targets. Innovative thinking embedded within regional and national health systems is needed. Policy makers, managers and frontline health workers are the mediators between challenge and change at global and local levels. This paper attempts to address the challenges to end the chronic pandemic of NTDs and achieve the SDG targets. It concludes with a conceptual framework that illustrates the interactions between these key challenges and opportunities and emphasizes the health system as a critical mediator.

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