Wife of Akwa Ibom State Governor, Mrs. Patience Eno has underscored the need for collaboration among stakeholders in the fight against Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) in Nigeria.
Mrs Eno who spoke at the inaugural NTDs Stakeholders’ Summit in Uyo emphasized that forging partnerships between non-governmental organizations, academia, governments, and other critical players is the most effective strategy to combat the prevalence of NTDs.
The summit, themed ‘Enhancing Domestic Resource Mobilizations Towards Sustaining the Control and Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases in Akwa Ibom State’ was jointly organized by the State Ministry of Health and Helen Keller International.
The first lady who was a guest speaker at the summit, encouraged mothers to prioritize the deworming of their children while she pledged her continuous support to the event’s organizers whenever needed.
She stated, “Our collective knowledge and expertise will be vital in shaping a future where these diseases no longer pose significant threats to human life and well-being.”
Mrs. Eno emphasized the importance of open-mindedness, empathy, and knowledge sharing, underlining the significance of multidisciplinary approaches and the involvement of various stakeholders, including government, academia, NGOs, and the private sector in the fight against NTDs.
Earlier, the Commissioner for Health, Prof. Augustine Umoh, noted that the summit aimed to draw greater attention to NTDs, which, while seldom discussed, pose significant health challenges in the state.
While he called for collaboration from stakeholders across sectors to finance and eliminate NTDs in the state; he highlighted the Ministry’s partnership with Helen Keller International and its achievements in providing over 314 free surgeries in the last three years across the state’s three Senatorial Districts.
Also, Head of Programmes at Helen Keller International Mohammed Aliyu, expressed the organization’s commitment to sponsoring more surgical operations and highlighted their significant investments in curbing NTDs in Nigeria.
Helen Keller International operates in 12 states in Nigeria, working toward the global 2030 target of reducing the number of people requiring treatment for NTDs by 90percent.
According to World Health Organization (WHO), NTDs are a diverse group of 20 conditions that are mainly prevalent in tropical areas, where they mostly affect impoverished communities and disproportionately affect women and children. These diseases cause devastating health, social and economic consequences to more than one billion people.
NTDs include: Buruli ulcer, Chagas disease, dengue and chikungunya, dracunculiasis (Guinea-worm disease), echinococcosis, food-borne trematodiases, human African trypanosomiasis (sleeping sickness), leishmaniasis, leprosy (Hansen’s disease), lymphatic filariasis, mycetoma, chromoblastomycosis and other deep mycoses, onchocerciasis (river blindness), podoconiosis, rabies, scabies and other ectoparasitoses, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthiases, snakebite envenoming, taeniasis/cysticercosis, trachoma, and yaws and other endemic treponematoses.
