Report of the sixth meeting of the WHO Diagnostic Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases, Geneva, Switzerland, 14–15 February 2024

Download or read book Report of the sixth meeting of the WHO Diagnostic Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases, Geneva, Switzerland, 14–15 February 2024 written by World Health Organization and published by World Health Organization. This book was released on 2024-06-30 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Diagnostic Technical Advisory Group (DTAG) for the WHO Global NTD Programme was formed to foster a unified approach for identifying and prioritizing diagnostic needs, and to inform WHO strategies and guidance on NTD diagnostics. The first meeting of the DTAG was held at the Inter Parliamentary Union in Geneva, Switzerland, in October 2019. The second took place virtually in October 2020, the third in June 2021, the fourth in October 2021 and the fifth in November 2022. Several disease-specific and cross-cutting DTAG subgroups have been formed, resulting in the development of target product profiles (TPPs) for new diagnostics, some of which have been published, and some of which are in production. WHO/NTD convened the sixth DTAG meeting on 14 and 15 February 2024, with the following objectives across the end-to-end process of diagnostic development: -consider updates from disease-specific subgroups and TPP production; -discuss progress made by the cross-cutting and resource mobilization subgroups; -discuss the Expert Review Panel for Diagnostics (ERPD) NTD pilot project and lessons learnt; -discuss engagement of manufacturers and developers; -discuss laboratory capacity strengthening and standardization of molecular methods; -deliberate on the priority/focus areas of engagement for the DTAG for the next 2 years.