Research Projects

• Millennium Villages
• Access Project
• CNHDE
• HIV/AIDS
• Tuberculosis
• Neglected Tropical Diseases
• Human Nutrition
• Community Health Workers
• Early Childhood Development
• mHealth
• eHealth
• Monitoring and Evaluation
• Support to the Health Extension Program of the Ethiopian Ministry of Health
• Nigeria OSSAP/LGA Conditional Grant Scheme
• Climate Risk Management and Public Health
• Haiti Project
• Tropical Lab Initiative
• Eliminating Mother to Child Transmission of HIV
• Oral Hygiene
• International Advisory Panel on the National Rural Health Mission of India
• Model Districts Project in India
• Ministerial Working Group

Neglected Tropical Diseases

Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) are a category of preventable, infectious diseases including hookworm, trachoma and leprosy among others, which persist only in the most impoverished communities of the world. The Center for Global Health and Economic Development partners with local governments and organizations to control neglected tropical diseases in developing countries.

Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases in Millennium Villages Project – Rwanda

Currently in Rwanda there is no national disease control plan to combat the most common NTDs, and basic knowledge of how NTDs are transmitted and controlled is lacking. Soil-transmitted helminth infections (STH) are highly prevalent in the Millennium Villages. In Mayange, Rwanda, one or more STHs infections were found in 68% of women of reproductive age.

The Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases in Rwanda program works with the Ministry of Health, the Ministry of Education, the World Health Organization and the Access Project to develop a national plan for carrying out necessary interventions at the district level. This partnership aims to reduce morbidity of five diseases: STH infections, schistosomiasis, onchocerciasis (river blindness), lymphatic filariasis and trachoma.

Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases in the Millennium Villages – Ethiopia

The Center for National Health Development in Ethiopia (CNHDE) coordinates Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) control in the Millennium Village located in Koraro, Ethiopia. The villages are tackling NTD challengesthrough mass drug administration (MDA) as well as targeted treatments tailored to the local epidemiology of each community, including health education, safe water close to households and sanitation improvement. The NTD team systematically surveys the prevalence of STH and schistosomiasis in communities, providing information to assess the impact of the NTD Project’s interventions.

Building political support for the integration of Malaria and NTD control

The Earth Institute’s NTD faculty were founding members of the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, the first-ever global effort to combat NTDs in an integrated framework. In early 2009, in an effort to promote an integrated approach to malaria and NTD control, CNHDE brought together the national program managers of malaria and NTDs of several African countries, along with researchers, to discuss progress and technical support needs in scaling up malaria and NTD control and the obstacles and opportunities for integrated interventions. Program managers from Senegal, Mali, Ghana, Ethiopia, Kenya, Malawi, Uganda and Tanzania were present, and the lively discussions during the three day workshop explored many ways in which this can be accomplished, increasing the capacity not only of malaria and NTD control programs, but also of other health programs that can benefit from an integrated, community-based approach.