Reaching never-treated people to eliminate neglected tropical diseases: a toolkit for national programmes
Overview
Aim of the toolkit
This toolkit aims to provide guidance to national and district NTD programmes, partner organizations, researchers and communities on never treatment. The toolkit chapters address the following steps in understanding and responding to never treatment
- How to define never treatment;
- Why never treatment may be an important contributor to persistent low coverage or persistent transmission;
- How to estimate levels of never treatment using routinely collected programmatic data;
- How to interpret data about never treatment and decide when action is needed;
- How to reach individuals with treatment for the first time;
- How to monitor improvements to MDA;
- How to integrate NTD activities to address never treatment with other public health programmes; and
- How NTD programmes have collected and used never treatment data to improve MDA
This toolkit was developed through the Improving Community Health Outcomes through Research, Dialogue and Systems Strengthening (iCHORDS) community of practice. While the toolkit largely focuses on never treatment within LF elimination programmes, it also provides examples and adaptations to account for other NTD programmes. The concepts and approaches in the toolkit can be applied across the NTD portfolio to identify those who qualify for NTD medicines but have never swallowed them during MDA, and to understand how to reach them.
Intended readership
This manual is intended for managers of national NTD elimination programmes; national, regional and district NTD programme staff; development and technical agencies; nongovernmental organizations (NGOs); regional programme review and technical advisory groups; and other organizations involved in supporting NTD activities. While the focus is on NTDs, other public health programmes requiring high levels of participation may find the toolkit relevant and useful.
Methodology
Details on the methodology used to create this toolkit, including declarations of interest and their management, can be found in Annex 1
