ASHENEWS reports that an international medical organisation, Médecins Sans Frontières/Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has lauded the inclusion of Noma on the World Health Organization (WHO)’s official list of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).
MSF, in a statement issued on Wednesday said that the inclusion of noma on the list will allow for more efforts at prevention and treatment of the disease.
“We welcome the WHO director-general’s decision, which confirms what MSF and the medical community have insisted on for years: that noma is a neglected tropical disease and deserves all the attention and resources that this implies.
“We hope that this decision will shine a spotlight on the disease, facilitating the integration of noma prevention and treatment activities into existing public health programmes, and encouraging the allocation of much-needed resources to help tackle the disease,” the statement quoted Mark Sherlock, MSF health programmes manager as saying.
The statement noted that the organization, prior to this development had supported Nigeria in providing the medical evidence needed to ensure its recognition by the WHO.
“MSF has supported the Nigerian Ministry of Health’s Sokoto noma hospital, in northwest Nigeria, since 2014, where its teams provide reconstructive surgery, nutritional support, mental health support and outreach activities. Since 2014, MSF’s surgical teams in Sokoto have carried out 1,203 surgeries on 837 patients,” the statement said.
“Inclusion in the WHO’s list of NTDs is an important step, but not the final one.
“We plan to shift towards mobilizing resources and strategic alliances within the global health community to facilitate programming and research to raise awareness of noma, reduce mortality, and improve the patient’s and survivors’ life conditions.”
With this development, MSF also announced plans to focus on research and expansion to allow for collaboration with academic institutes around the world to discover more about the causes of noma.
“Another key step will be to integrate noma surveillance systems into MSF’s medical work. “In endemic countries, MSF plans to introduce screening for noma into existing MSF programmes, such as malnutrition screening and vaccination campaigns, with the aim of early detection and prompt treatment,” says Sherlock.
“MSF will continue its advocacy efforts around noma. Its three-year campaign has received strong support from survivors of the disease, who have contributed their voices to get across the simple but important message: that noma is a preventable and treatable disease which should no longer exist,” the statement said.
