Category Archives: sitesavers

Keeping score: Will the new NTD Scorecard keep global action on track?

london declaration, NTDs, Onchocerciasis, River blindness, sitesavers, Trachoma, WHO


By Simon Bush, Director of Neglected Tropical Diseases at Sightsavers. See his recent article in the Huffington Post here.

Today sees the publication of an NTD Scorecard which will bring further transformation to the way global partners, from endemic governments, and pharmaceutical companies to NGOs, are working together to achieve the elimination of this group of debilitating diseases.

Developed by the London Declaration partners and published alongside From Promises to Progress, a new report on NTDs, the Scorecard will help translate the aspirational vision of elimination of ten of the NTDs by 2020 into a reality.

When I first started working on NTDs 13 years ago, I never would have imagined progress like this. Elimination of NTDs such as blinding trachoma and river blindness (onchocerciasis) seemed such a distant goal. How things have changed!  We are now seeing promises turn into action which will make a colossal difference to the lives of over a billion people who are affected by NTDs.

The Scorecard sets out the strategic milestones that are crucial if we’re going to see real progress on these ten NTDs – in terms of raising funds, conducting research and development, and ultimately delivering the right number of treatments, to the right people, in the right communities. It’s all about achieving the scale-up needed. Continue reading →

Success in combating NTDs means community ownership

Blindness, NGOs, Onchocerciasis, River blindness, sitesavers

By Simon Bush, Director of Neglected Tropical Diseases at Sightsavers

“The neglected tropical disease (NTD) agenda would not have been feasible without the Community Directed Treatment with Ivermectin (CDTI) framework.”

Mamu Jacu from Kaduna State in Nigeria receiving her Mectizan tablets. Credit: Kate Holt/Sightsavers.

This is the conclusion of a recent paper commissioned by Sightsavers on combating onchocerciasis – or river blindness. What it means in less formal terms is that involving communities in the distribution of river blindness treatments has proven to be effective, sustainable and a method that can be used to combat other diseases.  What it also means is the role played by non-governmental development organisations (NGDOs), such as Sightsavers, is fundamental to tackling, and ultimately eliminating, NTDs.

The river blindness tale has been told many times before, and readers of this blog may well be familiar with its treatment, Mectizan® (ivermectin*), which is donated for mass distribution by global pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. Inc. (known as MSD in the UK). But at Sightsavers we wanted to show another side of the story. After nearly 60 years of working in Africa to alleviate river blindness, we felt it was time to take stock of how NGDOs have performed, and ensure that by looking back, we are heading in the right direction in the future – especially as the scientific evidence shows that we have moved from the control of the disease to the elimination of its transmission.

The paper, ’Empowering communities in combating blindness and the role of NGOs’, reviews published literature and previously unpublished documents relating to approaches to river blindness in Africa during the early 1990s. Through four case studies, it describes the challenges organisations have faced when trying to encourage affected communities to manage their own treatment programmes. This was the only way those trying to tackle river blindness felt ongoing action could be sustained for 20 years or more – eventually leading to elimination. Continue reading →