Evaluation of Interventions and Diagnostics of Neglected Tropical Diseases in sub-Saharan Africa

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Most of the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) have little name-recognition in industrialized nations, but together they cause severe disability in the world‘s poorest countries, decreasing productivity by billions of dollars. Both the World Health Organization (WHO) and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have recently identified these diseases as ‘targets of opportunity‘ to improve global health. By providing safe and effective drug treatments to individuals, mass drug administration (MDA) can control seven NTDs.The proposed research aims to: i) evaluate the effect of different MDA-based interventions on the infection prevalence and intensity of two NTDs: schistosomiasis and trachoma, and on the likelihood of their elimination; and ii) evaluate the performance of the diagnostic tools currently used for Monitoring & Evaluation of interventions against these two NTDs. Robust statistical analysis of relevant data will help to optimize the design of future NTD control programmes, and evaluate the impact of current strategies so that a better quality of life for some of the world‘s poorest communities can be achieved. The results of this research will have implications for infections prevalent in the UK, such as genital Chlamydia, partly responsible for infertility in reproductive age women.