From Research to Impact: World NTD Day 2026
Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) affect nearly 1.5 billion people worldwide, disproportionately impacting the world’s poorest and most marginalised communities. Yet despite their scale, these diseases often remain overlooked.
Every year on 30 January, World NTD Day shines a spotlight on this group of conditions – recognising not only their human cost, but the sustained, year-round efforts around the world to reduce their burden.
In 2021, the World Health Organization set out an ambitious roadmap to prevent, control, eliminate, and eradicate 20 NTDs. The goals are bold: reduce treatment needs by 90%, eliminate at least one NTD in 100 countries, eradicate dracunculiasis and yaws, and cut NTD-related disability by 75%, all while strengthening integration within national health systems.
To mark World NTD Day, we spoke with members of our community who work on NTDs. They share reflections on progress made over the past year and the key challenges that continue to shape their work.
Snakebite envenoming in India
Dr Maya Gopalakrishnan conducting fieldwork in Rajasthan. Dr Gopalakrishnan holds the Sindh krait snake (Bungarus sindanus) being milked for venom by Mr Sourish Kuttalam, from Bangor University UK, while Dr Suman Saurabh looks on.
Last year, we published a special collection ‘Addressing the snakebite challenge – progress towards the 2030 roadmap’. The collection also led to a webinar on the same topic, featuring guest speakers including one of the collection’s guest editors, Dr Maya Gopalakrishnan of the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Jodphur.
Dr Gopalakrishnan’s research focus is the Echis carinatus sochureki (Sochurek’s saw scaled viper) envenoming in Rajasthan. She is currently investigating antivenom solutions as well as the challenges of chronic disabilities and mental health problems following snakebite envenoming. This work is alongside increasing visibility of NTDs in the health education curriculum.
“Our biggest challenge is that the Indian polyvalent antivenom is ineffective in neutralising E. c. sochureki venom,” says Dr Gopalakrishnan. “So, patients continue to bleed and develop complications like kidney injury despite adequate doses of antivenom. I’m currently working to approach this problem from multiple angles.”
Within the last year, there have been several key milestones to be celebrated. “Broadly within the snakebite landscape, there has been a lot of good news - several small molecules, such as marimastat and Varsepladib have shown promising results and are emerging as new drugs on the block and there is hope that these may prove game changers along with antivenom,” says Dr Gopalakrishnan “On the policy side, The government of India has released and started implementing the national action plan for snakebite envenoming. Globally, the WHO snakebite information and data portal is working well for several African nations.”
As well as successes, there are of course many challenges that continue to slow development, particularly from bench to bedside for new drugs and antibodies. “Snakebite is a multidimensional problem and we need researchers from various backgrounds like clinical, laboratory, public health experts, policy makers, patients and community leaders to come together and cross pollinate each other with new ideas/solutions,” says Dr Gopalakrishnan. “There is urgent need for multiple stakeholders to come together to further develop and implement the snakebite policies. Strong political commitment is needed. Also, we need more epidemiological research to address data gaps. Finally, we need funding mechanisms in place with very little support for snakebite work available.”
Dr Gopalakrishnan emphasises the importance of raising awareness of snakebite envenoming, such as through the RSTMH webinar. “Events like the snakebite webinar encourage early career researchers - especially researchers placed in LMICs - to present/ publish their work,” she says.
“Outside of snakebite world there is very little knowledge and awareness- these events raise the profile of snakebite and can bring awareness to funders and partners.”
Health system strengthening for NTDs
Dr Tamale Elvis is running a focus group to map feedback from nurses at the Nakivale Refugee Settlement in Uganda.
Dr Tamale Elvis, based at the University of Cambridge, was a recipient of our 2025 ECPG programme. Dr Elvis’ work focuses on health systems strengthening in low-resource and humanitarian settings, with a particular emphasis on improving the diagnosis, management, and reporting of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) at the primary healthcare level.
“My research project assesses the capacity of primary healthcare facilities within Nakivale Refugee settlement in south-western Uganda to diagnose and manage soil-transmitted helminths and schistosomiasis,” says Dr Elvis. “Using a mixed-methods approach, the study examined health worker knowledge, availability of diagnostic tools and essential medicines, reporting systems, and system-level facilitators and barriers to effective NTD care.”
So far, the findings highlight gaps in NTD training, supervision, diagnostics and reporting that limit effective care and point to the need for targeted interventions in refugee settings. Dr Elvis explains that one of the major challenges in managing the NTDs in his research area is the inadequate capacity of frontline health workers to handle soil-transmitted helminths and schistosomiasis cases.
“Most have never received formal training on NTDs, and many work without regular supervision or mentorship, which affects confidence and accuracy in diagnosis and reporting. The reporting system itself is difficult to use, leading to gaps in surveillance, and although laboratories are present, critical diagnostic consumables such as Kato Katz materials are consistently unavailable” says Dr Elvis. “Broader systemic issues, including constrained funding, supply shortages, and heavy clinical workloads, further reduce attention to NTDs.”
Dr Elvis explains that these challenges are amplified in refugee settings, where overcrowding, inadequate water and sanitation, and fragmented health-seeking patterns result in ongoing transmission and can complicate effective management.
“Looking ahead, my priorities for research focus on strengthening NTD systems in humanitarian settings,” says Dr Elvis. “Over the next year, I plan to engage Ministry of Health leadership on models for strengthened supportive supervision and to publish and disseminate my findings with key national stakeholders and the wider scientific community to guide future NTD interventions.”
Chemoinformatics for drug discovery
Mercedes Didier Garnham (far left) with the wider research team at IIBio UNSAM.
Mercedes Didier Garnham is a PhD student at the School of Bio and Nanotechnology (EByN), Institute of Biotechnological Research (IIB), Universidad Nacional de San Martín (UNSAM)–CONICET.
Like Dr Elvis, Mercedes received a grant as part of our ECGP 2025 cohort, where she has been exploring the use of artificial intelligence models for drug discovery in Chagas disease.
“Using chemoinformatics-based featurisation of publicly available chemical datasets, our project aims to analyse how different types of data and molecular representations influence model performance, and to identify which features and machine learning strategies are best suited for each dataset when prioritising compounds with predicted activity against Trypanosoma cruzi.”
One of the main challenges in Chagas disease research is the limited availability of high-quality biological assay data, Mercedes explains.
“High-throughput screening experiments are expensive, which restricts the amount of publicly available data. This data scarcity poses a significant challenge for the development of robust artificial intelligence models, as the performance and reliability of these approaches strongly depend on the quality and diversity of the input data.
“Greater coordination is needed to identify and agree on the most relevant types of data required to advance drug discovery and the development of new chemical tools for research, as well as to pool resources and expertise to generate these data through shared experimental efforts. By fostering collaboration across institutions and disciplines, the field can more efficiently address data gaps and accelerate progress toward new therapeutic options,” says Mercedes.
Her team are working to develop an open, user-friendly platform that enables the research community to access model predictions, compare modelling strategies, and perform customised in silico screening, contributing to more accessible and cost-effective early-stage drug discovery for NTDs.
NTDs, Mental Health and Stigma
A field visit to Noma Children's Hospital, Sokoto. Olalekan (left) with his Research Supervisor, and Research Assistant.
Olalekan Ata is based at the College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Nigeria.
With an Early Career Research Grant, Ata is investigating the prevalence of depression among paediatric noma patients and integration of mental health intervention into care services for these patients.
“Utilising the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D), the project assesses the mental health burden on a sample of over 200 participants while simultaneously engaging patients, caregivers, and healthcare providers in focus group discussions to determine specific psychological needs. The study aims to evaluate the feasibility of integrating mental health support into routine care and to develop a tailored framework for holistic intervention,” says Olalekan.
Some of the key challenges in Ata’s work is the late presentation of patients and the social stigma associated with NTDs and mental health.
“Looking ahead, I anticipate a pivot toward a robust nationwide study that expands beyond the current regional focus to cover the entire Nigerian "noma belt"," says Olalekan. "Further studies must focus on the development and adoption of patient-centered mental health intervention that can be standardised within the national healthcare system."
School based interventions for soil-transmitted helminths
Mandira (center) and Research Assistant Tamanna Tazmunnahar (far left) from Sylhet Agricultural University, with students from a primary school in Sylhet.
Mandira Mukutomi is a PhD candidate at the University of New South Wales, Sydney. Mandira is conducting a study, funded by the RSTMH ECGP, looking at school-based preventive chemotherapy (PC) programs for soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections in urban slums and tea gardens in Northeastern Bangladesh.
“Ongoing STH transmission is in part attributed to suboptimal PC uptake, particularly among out-of-school children (OSC). PC coverage among school-going children has ranged from around 63% to 88%, while coverage among OSC is reported between 9% to 62%,” says Mandira. “Furthermore, school dropout due to poverty, remote residency, and attendance at informal schools not covered by the PC program might further contribute to inequitable coverage.”
To address these existing challenges, Mandira’s study assesses the acceptability and feasibility of the school-based PC program in urban slum and tea garden communities in northeastern Bangladesh.
Questionnaires were conducted in 16 communities in Sylhet and Moulvibazar to assess school-based deworming uptake among school-aged children, alongside focus groups with parents and interviews with community leaders and key stakeholders to explore programme acceptability and feasibility. Mandira highlights the key challenges as raising awareness on STH in hard-to-reach areas, ensuring medicine distribution, and monitoring and reporting school attendance on the day of distribution including OSC, alongside limited prevalence data, which may restrict effective planning and implementation of control programs.
“Understanding gaps in current PC programmes, particularly the extent to which OSC and other underserved populations are excluded from deworming activities, should be a priority over the next year,” says Mandira. “STH control efforts should also focus on generating robust community-level prevalence data through the collection and analysis of biological samples using best-practice diagnostic tools. Finally, greater emphasis should be placed on engaging communities and involving them in the design of control programmes to enhance acceptability and participation.”
