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World NTD Day 2025: Unite. Act. Eliminate.

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TODAY is World Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) Day 2025. Almost all Solomon Islanders have been impacted by NTDs. These include: scabies, yaws, leprosy (skin), trachoma (eye), soil-transmitted helminths (intestinal), and dengue (vector-borne).

This year’s theme- Unite. Act. Eliminate NTDs- revolves around collective action with stakeholders and partners to effectively work towards eliminating NTDs, whilst celebrating country successes and ongoing challenges in NTD control. The NTD Unit at the Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS) has been working within this theme when undertaking NTD activities in the past year and will continue to do so moving forward into 2025.

In 2024, the newly formed NTD team at the MHMS started to solidify the Unit with a Corporate Planning workshop. This united partner organisations and stakeholders in the establishment of goals and actions towards tackling these diseases.

The NTD Unit conducted many activities in 2024 to work towards NTD elimination. MHMS, in partnership with World Scabies Program, carried out the second national mass drug administration (MDA) for scabies, marking the first country in the world to reach this milestone. This initiative integrated with the World Health Organization (WHO) school-based deworming program in Honiara City Council and Guadalcanal Province, as well as with the Fred Hollows Foundation trachoma MDA in Choiseul and Guadalcanal Provinces.

The NTD Unit also implemented facial cleanliness and environmental improvement (F&E) activities for trachoma, visiting schools in Western, Central, Choiseul, and Guadalcanal Provinces, conducting awareness, screening and treatment for trachoma. As part of F&E activities, the Unit supported the building of a water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) facility at Niumala Primary School in Western Province. Finally, towards the end of the year, the Unit carried out targeted MDAs for yaws in Western and Malaita Provinces.

In 2025, the NTD Unit will finalise the Corporate Plan with relevant partners and stakeholders. The NTD team will also continue working with partners and stakeholders towards NTD elimination. The Unit will work with World Scabies Program on a scabies impact survey to measure the effectiveness of the 2024 MDA campaign, as well as increasing Health Systems Strengthening activities for scabies. There will be two further MDAs for trachoma in Guadalcanal and Choiseul Provinces in April and August. The Unit will also work towards training the health workforce to tackle skin NTDs, focusing on scabies and yaws.

Head of the NTD Unit, Mr Oliver Sokana, says “the NTD Unit is dedicated and committed to eliminating NTDs in Solomon Islands, under the World NTD Day 2025 theme: Unite. Act. Eliminate NTDs. The team’s well-established collaboration with partner organisations and stakeholders has meant that targeted NTD activities have been implemented, resulting in meaningful action towards disease elimination, that will continue through 2025 and beyond”.

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