Report of the seventeenth meeting of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases, Geneva, Switzerland, 11-12 October 2023

Download or read book Report of the seventeenth meeting of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases, Geneva, Switzerland, 11-12 October 2023 written by World Health Organization and published by World Health Organization. This book was released on 2024-01-30 with total page 50 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The seventeenth meeting of the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases (STAG-NTD) was held at the headquarters of the World Health Organization (WHO) in Geneva, Switzerland, on 11–12 October 2023. The theme of the meeting was “Accelerating towards 2030”. The statements and statistics presented in the report may not represent the views, policies and official statistics of the Organization. Through a pre-recorded video, Dr Jérôme Salomon (WHO Assistant Director-General, Universal Health Coverage, Communicable and Noncommunicable Diseases) welcomed participants to the meeting. He said that NTDs are one of the most formidable health challenges. They afflict one billion individuals in the most vulnerable populations, miring them in poverty and desolation. This meeting was a key opportunity to steer collective efforts towards transformative solutions and strengthen collaboration among governments, organizations and individuals. The elimination of NTDs underscores the indispensable role of robust and adaptable health systems on the way to universal health coverage. Control of NTDs is about human empowerment, children’s education and people’s participation in their communities. By eliminating NTDs, we foster a legacy of health and optimism, and exemplify the importance of global unity and collective action. Together, we can all catalyse change, ensure a world where nobody needlessly suffers from these afflictions and health is genuinely a universal right.