RESUMO
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are a diverse group of disease conditions that are most commonin the tropical and subtropical regions. These diseases most heavily affect people living withoutaccess to adequate sanitation, basic infrastructure and health services. In addition to significantmorbidity and mortality, these diseases can lead to stigma and discrimination in communities.Home to a quarter of the world’s population, the World Health Organization (WHO) South-East AsiaRegion bears the world’s highest burden of NTDs today. Sixteen out of the 21 NTDs globally prioritizedby WHO continue to be public health problems in the 11 Member States of the Region.Given the major contribution of the Region towards easing the global burden of NTDs, theWHO Regional Committee for South-East Asia declared “Finishing the task of eliminatingNTDs on the verge of elimination” (focusing on lymphatic filariasis [LF], kala-azar, yaws, trachomaand leprosy) as one of the Regional Flagship Priority Programmes in 2014. This has led to substantialprogress and achievements in the Region in this area of public health over the past decade.With unprecedented achievements registered, the landscape of NTDs in the South-East Asia Regionis changing fast while at the same time new challenges and opportunities have been emerging.There is a need for a new vision and direction to accelerate the control and elimination of NTDs andto sustain the gains made in the South-East Asia Region in the next decade.A new global roadmap for the eradication, elimination and control of NTDs – Ending the neglectto attain the Sustainable Development Goals: a roadmap for neglected tropical diseases 2021–2030– was endorsed by the Seventy-third World Health Assembly in 2020, setting out updated globaltargets and milestones to prevent, control, eliminate or eradicate 20 diseases and disease groupsas well as cross-cutting targets aligned with the SDGs.The Regional Strategic Framework for sustaining, accelerating and innovating to end NTDs in theSouth-East Asia 2024–2030 was developed in collaboration with Member States and partners byadapting the Global Roadmap 2030 in the context of the South-East Asia Region.This is the first Regional Strategic Framework encompassing all NTDs of public health importance inthe Region. It is intended to guide, coordinate and integrate efforts among Member States, WHOand partners in the South-East Asia Region to sustain progress, accelerate actions, and innovateapproaches to effectively implement the Global Roadmap 2023–2030 through transformation ofour efforts to combat NTDs at national and regional levels under three strategic pillars.It also defines the overarching, cross-cutting and disease-specific indicators to achieve uniformityin monitoring the progress of implementation of the Global Roadmap across diseases andcountries, adapted to the context of the South-East Asia Region. These changes are imperativeacross all countries where NTDs are prevalent to successfully attain the outcomes and goalsoutlined in the Framework.
