WHO AFRO launches new project to control neglected tropical diseases

The World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Regional Office for Africa (AFRO) has launched a major new partnership to help African countries reduce the burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).The partnership named the Expanded Special Project for Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases (ESPEN) will provide national NTD programmes with technical and fundraising support to help them control and eliminate the five NTDs with the greatest burden on the continent, which are onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminths and trachoma.

The launch of ESPEN took place at an event on the sidelines of the 69th Annual World Health Assembly in Geneva.

ESPEN will run from 2016 to 2020, and is designed to continue the momentum towards the control and elimination targets established by the World Health Organisation and endorsed in the London Declaration on NTDs in January 2012. 

The project will be hosted and managed by WHO AFRO in partner