THE ROAD TO ELIMINATION

REFLECTING ON ETHIOPIA'S PROGRESS TO DEFEAT NTDs

In May 2023, Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health hosted members of the neglected tropical disease community, including partners, donors, and the END Fund’s board members to celebrate ten years of partnership with the END Fund towards NTD elimination goals.

Ethiopia has one of the highest burdens of NTDs in Africa, with over seventy-seven million people at risk. Despite this vast number, Ethiopia has made remarkable strides towards elimination. Diseases such as lymphatic filariasis and river blindness have been reduced as a result of improved diagnosis and sustained mass drug administration. Over 36,000 people received corrective surgery to prevent vision problems resulting from trachoma. Nearly 1.5 million health workers, government staff, and volunteers were trained in MDA, diagnosis and surveillance, community engagement, and prevention strategies.

At the ten-year celebratory event, Ethiopia’s Ministry of Health and its partners reflected on these accomplishments achieved through powerful political will, community engagement, and global partnership. Discussions on sustaining this momentum during the visit led to a historic achievement of direct co-funding of programs with the State of Oromia.

A media round table led by a panel of NTD experts and the END Fund’s Board Chair Emeritus, Bill Campbell, shared messages about the importance of prevention and treatment with attending media journalists and youth health activists.

Attendees also experienced the artistic depiction of Ethiopia’s journey to eliminate NTDs through traditional music, contemporary dance, and poetry. This joyous moment was a chance to reflect on how far Ethiopia has come in its journey to eliminate NTDs, and plan for a hopeful future of continued progress. The END Fund supports Ethiopia’s national NTD elimination program through four investment portfolios which bolster the government’s deworming efforts and strategic initiatives to combat trachoma, river blindness, lymphatic filariasis, and visceral leishmaniasis.

EYES CLEAR AND FREE OF PAIN:
READ ABOUT ETHIOPIA’S JOURNEY TO BLINDING TRACHOMA ELIMINATION

The sun shone high in the sky above the sorghum fields of the Somali region of Ethiopia. Feysel Abdullahi Samatar’s hands made quick work of harvesting his crop. But his eyes watered painfully in the sun’s light, a result of the disease that had followed him for most of his life: trachoma, a bacterial infection that can lead to blindness.

“My eyes have always been watery since I was a young child, but I never tried the treatment as I couldn't afford it,” said Feysel. “My eyes itch and hurt a lot. Being in the sun makes it difficult for me to work on the farm.”

Persistent infection with trachoma causes scarring of the eyelids, which twists the eyelashes inward to scrape painfully against the cornea. Eventually, this destroys a person’s eyesight. The condition is known as trachomatous trichiasis, or TT.

In December 2023, at the Reaching the Last Mile Forum, held on the inaugural Health Day of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP28) in Dubai, a series of historic commitments were announced which included expanding the Reaching the Last Mile Fund (RLMF) to support neglected tropical disease elimination at a continent level.

The fund, which was established in 2017 by His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, President of the UAE, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has emerged as a best in-class program to achieve elimination of NTDs. RLMF has made a remarkable impact in its targeted geographies, enabling its founders to strive for the bolder vision of an Africa free of river blindness and lymphatic filariasis (LF).

The RLMF model prioritizes country leadership in disease elimination and responds directly to countries’ evolving scientific, policy, and program delivery needs. Through this strategic investment model, the RLMF supported Niger in becoming the first African country to submit a World Health Organization (WHO) dossier to verify its elimination of river blindness, and Senegal to halt its nationwide treatment and move on to its post treatment surveillance phase.

Building upon this foundation of success, the RLMF added four new countries to its portfolio in early 2023: Guinea Bissau, Rwanda, Ghana, and Malawi. To date, the fund has supported countries to deliver over 113.8 million treatments for river blindness and LF across eleven countries and has facilitated life altering surgeries for 2,435 patients with LF. These accomplishments underscore the profound impact of country-led approaches to disease elimination.

Then, in December 2023, the UAE Presidential Court’s Reaching the Last Mile and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation announced the expansion of RLMF to a continent-wide elimination program for river blindness and LF in Africa. Supported by a newly expanded coalition of countries, funders, and implementing partners, RLMF’s footprint will grow from eleven to thirty-nine countries.

Partners and countries pledged resources to expand RLMF’s footprint from eleven to thirty-nine countries. “These pledges represent an important milestone in our journey towards ending NTDs,” said Tsitsi Masiyiwa, Board Chair of the END Fund, at the Reaching the Last Mile Forum.

“An Africa free from river blindness and LF will restore dignity and social inclusion to millions of people, while ensuring that others don’t experience needless pain, stigma, and suffering.” Today, we are halfway to the WHO's target of 100 countries eliminating at least one NTD by 2030. The expansion of the RLMF is a pivotal step towards meeting this target, holding the promise of improving the health of millions of people and increasing growth and prosperity throughout the African continent.