Togo Becomes First Country To Eliminate Four Neglected Tropical Diseases
Category: Africa News
The World Health Organization has acknowledged Togo as the first country to
eliminate four Neglected Tropical Diseases globally.
The WHO made
this known during its Regional Committee for Africa meeting held in Lomé on
Monday.
Between 2011 and 2022, Togo has successfully eliminated
dracunculiasis (Guinea worm disease), elephantiasis (lymphatic filariasis),
human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness) and trachoma.
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NTDs
are a group of 20 preventable and treatable diseases, but 1.7 billion people
worldwide still require NTD interventions. Many NTDs debilitate, disfigure and
disable by preventing children from going to school and adults from being able
to work.
In a statement made available to Punch correspondent by the
Uniting to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases and signed by its Associate
Consultant, Kingsley Ochieng, it noted that as the first country acknowledged by
WHO as having won its fight against four NTDs, Togo eliminated all four diseases
in just eleven years.
“Togo previously achieved transmission-free
status for Guinea worm disease in 2011. In 2017, it became the first country in
sub-Saharan Africa to eliminate elephantiasis as a public health problem and, in
2020, became the first African country to achieve the same status with sleeping
sickness.
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“To eliminate these diseases, Togo adopted a two-pronged
approach that focused on first, interrupting transmission and preventing
occurrence of new infections; and secondly, treating or managing diseases, their
associated morbidity, and their complications, to alleviate suffering,” it
said.
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