Tanzania (Mainland) Sustainability Plan for Neglected Tropical Diseases Control Plan (2021 - 2026)
Tanzania has made significant progress towards combating NTDs. The overall prevalence of highly endemic diseases have gone down and the number of endemic districts that need treatment is also going down. These results follow after effective implementation of the NTD Integration Master Plan 2012 to 2017. The government through health policy 2007 is committed to efficiently prevent and manage the NTDs and dedicated to:
- Promote public awareness on NTDs.
- Increase access to care for people already affected with NTD morbidity
- Enhance NTD management systems, monitoring and evaluation.
- Strengthen operational research and surveillance capacity for early detection of NTDs and any recrudescence
The main goal of the master plan was to reduce morbidity due to NTDs in Tanzania to a level that they are no longer a public health problem by 2017 through community and school-based delivery mechanisms. A number of successes have been achieved; these achievements have come due to collaborative effort of local communities, government, partners and implementing team. Some of these successes include:
- Attainment of full (100%) geographical coverage for MDA in all councils. MDA for onchocerciasis reached full coverage by 2009, for LF in 2014 and for STH and SCH in 2015/16. Over 42 million people were reached with treatments of Ivermectin, Albendazole, Praziquantel and Zithromax,
- Scaling down of MDA for LF and trachoma: For Lymphatic Filariasis the country scaled down from the previous 120 endemic districts that needed MDA to 24 (80% reduction) in 2019 and for Trachoma the country scaled down from the previous 71 districts that needed MDA to 6 (92% reduction) districts that needed MDA in 2019.