Neglected Tropical Diseases – a case for eradication and the related public health challenges

Abstract

The global health community pays renewed attention to evaluating the feasibility of elimination and eradication of additional communicable diseases, particularly Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) besides continuing to aim at reducing the burden of ill-health. While the health and economic benefits of disease elimination and subsequent eradication may be substantial, elimination initiatives represent resource-intensive efforts with associated opportunity costs. Thus, besides studying the biomedical approaches and the accompanying R&D agenda, any attempt of considering elimination and eradication efforts also entail engaging into developing the Eradication Investment Case (EIC). An EIC is an economic assessment addressing all three fundamental economics questions: 1) the “What question”, that compares remaining in control mode versus moving towards elimination and then eradication; 2) the “How question”, that assesses which intervention/s or strategy/ies should be adopted by which stakeholder, how much resources would be required and how they could be mobilized; and 3) the “For whom” question, that assesses who would benefit from control or elimination in terms of health and economic benefits, and the likely impact on equity and fairness.