Eswatini NTD Master Plan Version 2024-2028 - EN

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are those diseases that generally afflict the world's poor and historically have not received as much attention as other diseases. NTDs tend to thrive in developing regions of the world, where water quality, sanitation, and access to health care are substandard. They are preventable and can be controlled. An estimated 1 billion people, constituting one seventh of the world’s population, are affected by these NTDs. About 500,000 to 1 million deaths occur Annually because of NTDs. NTDs are chronic, disfiguring and disabling conditions. They are among the leading perpetuators of poverty as they significantly diminish economic productivity in affected adults, intellectual and physical development of the next generation, thus reinforcing a cycle of poverty. 

Among these NTDs are those targeted for elimination as a public health problem and include Soil Transmitted Helminthes (STH), Schistosomiasis (SCH), Trachoma, and Lymphatic Filariasis. Those for elimination are leprosy, Human African Trypanosomiasis and Onchocerciasis. 

Eswatini is not spared from the increasing burden of NTDs. In 2015, Eswatini’s national prevalence of schistosomiasis among 10 to 14-year-old school children was 10.25%. To respond to this situation, the Ministry of Health (MoH) developed a national masterplan as a tool for control, elimination, and eradication of NTDs. The NTDs master plan is a product of joint efforts and intensive consultation process between health workers and experts in NTDs control and elimination. The comprehensive Eswatini multi-year plan provides the national NTDs situational analysis, with strategies that will be used to prevent, control, and eliminate NTDs in the country. This master plan is a guiding tool as to how the NTDs agenda should move ahead in Eswatini. It is a framework for partners’ coordination, harmonization, and alignment.