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. 2020 Jul 10;9(1):86.
doi: 10.1186/s40249-020-00701-7.

Strategies supporting the prevention and control of neglected tropical diseases during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic

John P Ehrenberg  1   2 , Xiao-Nong Zhou  3   4 , Gilberto Fontes  5 , Eliana M M Rocha  5 , Marcel Tanner  6   7 , Jürg Utzinger  6   7
Affiliations

Strategies supporting the prevention and control of neglected tropical diseases during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic

John P Ehrenberg et al. Infect Dis Poverty. .

Abstract

Emerging and re-emerging zoonotic diseases represent a public health challenge of international concern. They include a large group of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), many of which are of zoonotic nature. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), another emerging zoonotic disease, has just increased the stakes exponentially. Most NTDs are subject to the impact of some of the very same human-related activities triggering other emerging and re-emerging diseases, including COVID-19, severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS), bird flu and swine flu. It is conceivable that COVID-19 will exacerbate the NTDs, as it will divert much needed financial and human resources. There is considerable concern that recent progress achieved with control and elimination efforts will be reverted. Future potential strategies will need to reconsider the determinants of health in NTDs in order to galvanize efforts and come up with a comprehensive, well defined programme that will set the stage for an effective multi-sectorial approach. In this Commentary, we propose areas of potential synergies between the COVID-19 pandemic control efforts, other health and non-health sector initiatives and NTD control and elimination programmes.

Keywords: COVID-19; Emerging and re-emerging diseases; Multi-sectorial approaches; Neglected tropical diseases; Zoonotic diseases.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests. XNZ is the Editor-in-Chief of Infectious Diseases of Poverty. JPE is retired Director of Combating Communicable Diseases at Regional Office for the Western Pacific, WHO; XNZ was a former member of Strategic and Technical Advisory Group on Neglected Tropical Diseases, WHO.

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