Alternative and Innovative Strategies to Accelerate the Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases: Opportunities and Challenges

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are a group of 21 conditions prevailing in tropical areas, affecting millions of poor people with no or limited access to clean water, adequate sanitation, and quality health care. NTDs are caused by viruses, bacteria, parasites, fungi and toxins, and are associated with significant mortality and morbidity, as well as socio-economic consequences. WHO estimates that NTDs are responsible of approximately 120,000 deaths and 14.1 million disability adjusted life years (DALYs) lost annually. Fortunately, these diseases and preventable and treatable, and WHO recently developed a road map to coordinate the scale-up of public health interventions (preventive chemotherapy, individual case management, vector control, veterinary public health and water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)). Significant success has been achieved in NTDs control, elimination and eradication, encouraging WHO to set ambitious 2030 overarching targets including elimination of at least one NTD by at least 100 countries worldwide, and global eradication of dracunculiasis and yaws.

Despite significant control, elimination and eradication efforts and achievements, NTDs are persisting in different settings with variable magnitudes. Potential reasons for persistence of infections have been evoked, including (but not limited to) potential reservoirs escaping to current elimination efforts, sub-optimal response of pathogens to treatments, climate change, human migration reintroducing pathogens in disease-free areas or very high transmission dynamics. Current tools and strategies appear not enough or reliable to reach elimination targets, calling for innovative and alternative solutions. Indeed, innovative strategies are currently developed and deployed to shrink the map of diseases for more targeted interventions, AI-based technologies are currently being utilized to develop improved diagnostic tools or deployed for optimal interventions.

This Research Topic aims to bring together original research articles and reviews reporting persistence of neglected tropical diseases, gaps in elimination efforts, and novel or innovative tools and strategies to accelerate the elimination. It welcomes articles addressing, but not limited to, the following themes:
• Shrinking mapping for targeted interventions;
• Persistence of infection despite routine interventions as a threat to disease elimination;
• Climate and environmental drivers of infections;
• Crosscutting approaches to address shared determinants and optimize resources;
• Community engagement to build trust, promote ownership and sustainability of interventions;
• Enhanced surveillance as a backbone of control and elimination programs;
• Novel diagnostic tools and approaches to guide interventions and monitor progress toward elimination;
• Innovative interventions to accelerate transmission interruption and elimination;
• Health systems and supply chain innovations for equitable access and reliable delivery of interventions.

Article types and fees

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• ... View all formats

Articles that are accepted for publication by our external editors following rigorous peer review incur a publishing fee charged to Authors, institutions, or funders.

Article types

This Research Topic accepts the following article types, unless otherwise specified in the Research Topic description:

• Brief Research Report
• Case Report
• Classification
• Clinical Trial
• Community Case Study
• Curriculum, Instruction, and Pedagogy
• Data Report
• Editorial
• FAIR² Data
• General Commentary
• Hypothesis and Theory
• Methods
• Mini Review
• Opinion
• Original Research
• Perspective
• Policy and Practice Reviews
• Policy Brief
• Review
• Study Protocol
• Systematic Review
• Technology and Code

Keywords: Neglected tropical diseases, persistence of infection, recrudescence of infection, alternative treatment strategies, innovative interventions, transmission interruption, elimination

Important note: All contributions to this Research Topic must be within the scope of the section and journal to which they are submitted, as defined in their mission statements. Frontiers reserves the right to guide an out-of-scope manuscript to a more suitable section or journal at any stage of peer review.