2023 COR-NTD Annual Meeting

We’re very excited to be in Chicago this year to learn and engage with partners old and new. We see great value in the opportunity for partnership and collaboration that the COR-NTD meeting affords.

Monday 16 October

Insights from the Schistosomiasis Oversampling Study (SOS) in facilitating sub-district mass drug administration

19:00-22:00 (BST) 

Managing, monitoring, and tracking sub-district implementation for schistosomiasis 

Schistosomiasis is a focal disease that tends to transmit evenly across homogeneous environments, both large and small, regardless of administrative boundaries. While this has been well understood, the tools to implement and evaluate progress across different ecological zones have been lacking, particularly during as programs scaled over the last 15 years.  

In her presentation, Dr Fiona Fleming will talk about how the Schistosomiasis Oversampling Study (SOS) and the ESPEN Schistosomiasis Community Data Analysis Tool, aim to establish a method for determining schistosomiasis risk at a level below district or ecological zone.  

Tuesday 17 October

Beyond the FAST Package: Moving from research to program implementation and policy

15:30-18:30 (BST) 

“Prevention of female genital schistosomiasis (FGS) is incredibly important, because if women at-risk do not have access to services, their symptoms can continue to worsen with potentially devastating consequences such as infertility. We have been working in close collaboration with the Ministry of Health of Côte d’Ivoire for many years, to research innovative ways to provide sustainable access to FGS prevention services, to address this issue.”

Ashley Preston, Technical Advisor: Access (FGS)

Ashley will be giving a presentation on the FAST research project and our work with the Ministry of Health on female genital schistosomiasis (FGS) in Côte d’Ivoire.

Download the presentation here

Diagnostic and screening algorithms for FGS in relation to purpose, context and setting

19:30-22:30 (BST) 

“It is still so important to continue addressing the large research gap for how to best diagnose women with FGS, particularly to ensure there are practical and affordable solutions, so that access to services is equitable.”

Ashley Preston, Technical Advisor: Access (FGS)

Ashley is a session organiser and moderator for this session.

The role of social research in supporting policy change and patient adoption of new technology

19:30-22:30 (BST) 

“It’s an honour to be part of the Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium, to be able to work with experts around the world who are dedicated to addressing the unmet medical need of infected preschool-aged children. One of the very important aspects is to understand the context and work closely with the ministries of health as they produce evidence-based social mobilisation strategies.”

Ashley Preston, Technical Advisor: Access (Female genital schistosomiasis)

Ashley will be giving a presentation on the Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium via video recording.

Wednesday 18 October

The Global Schistosomiasis Alliance (GSA) will be hosting a one-day meeting on the 18th of October in Chicago, after the COR NTD meeting has concluded. 

16:30 BST – WASH and schistosomiasis: Focal solutions for a focal disease [10mins + 5mins Q&A], hosted by Dr Fiona Fleming.