SCI Foundation is now Unlimit Health. Learn more about what the change means for our ongoing efforts to eliminate neglected tropical diseases
22 January 2025
This year marks the halfway point in the World Health Organization’s ambitious 2021-2030 roadmap, which aims to drive global action and commitment toward reducing the burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). 2025 presents a critical juncture for assessing the momentum behind these efforts.
In this article, we share perspectives from some of our valued partners, who reflect on our achievements and highlight the areas where more focus is needed since the launch of our five-year strategy.
Here are key themes emerging from discussions with our partners, in their own words.
Ensuring accessible care for women and girls
Dr Anouk Gouvras of the Global Schistosomiasis Alliance (GSA), highlighted our support for integrating female genital schistosomiasis (FGS), a hidden gynaecological condition, into routine health services.
Dr Gouvras said, “Unlimit Health has spearheaded research on FGS with the Ministry of Health (MoH) in Côte d’Ivoire, working to deliver interventions so that those at risk of FGS can access the information and treatment they need, in their communities and at the health services they use”.
Unlimit Health as a member of the FGS Integration Group (FIG) fosters collaborative efforts across sectors, including sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH), to create a holistic approach to tackling FGS, ensuring better health outcomes for women and girls and promoting gender equity in health programming.
“As chairs of FIG with Frontline AIDS, Unlimit Health draws on its work with MoHs and research collaborations, building the evidence, narrative and strategies to inform and support policymakers at the national and international levels.
This past year the FIG coalition has seen an impressive reach in the global health advocacy space. From holding a critical side meeting at the AIDS 2024 conference to having an article published in the Guardian, key decision-makers have heard from MoH representatives about the policy and funding required to tackle FGS. FIG has increased engagement with key SRH sector players, amplifying the message from those at the coalface of health service delivery, of the need for FGS integration to meet girls and women where they are and deliver patient-centred, holistic, and comprehensive health services”, said Dr Gouvras.
The importance of partnership in addressing an unmet medical need
The Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium was established to develop and make available a novel pediatric praziquantel treatment for preschool-aged children experiencing, or at risk of, schistosomiasis. This new treatment complements the existing praziquantel treatment for school-aged children and adults, enabling treatment coverage for all age ranges in endemic regions.
“Unlimit Health joined the consortium in 2016 and came on board as an expert organisation with strong connections to schistosomiasis control programmes across sub-Saharan Africa. This connection proved pivotal to the Consortium’s ADOPT programme, which focuses on ensuring access to pediatric praziquantel. In collaboration with Consortium partners Swiss TPH and Technischen Universität München, Unlimit Health has a shared commitment to ensuring that the relevant country partners own the ADOPT pilot programmes. Through its past and ongoing collaborations with several of the ADOPT country partners, Unlimit Health has the necessary insight into the country partners’ needs and perspectives regarding access to pediatric praziquantel”, said Dr Karin de Ruiter of Lygature, a not-for-profit partnership management foundation acting as the independent coordinator of the Consortium.
Over the past year, the consortium was granted a positive scientific opinion of its new paediatric treatment by the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and prequalification by the World Health Organization (WHO).
Dr de Ruiter added, “We are now close to delivering this much-needed treatment, addressing an unmet medical need. With this, the Consortium provides a critical piece of the “elimination of schistosomiasis puzzle”, and complements other much-needed intervention strategies, such as targeting the host through WASH, which our partner Unlimit Health is involved in”.
Supporting country ownership of health programmes
Our strategy is aligned with the roadmap pillars, including changing operating models and culture to facilitate country ownership, which is when health system priorities, and their necessary resourcing, are controlled by endemic countries themselves.
NTD Manager at MoH Zanzibar, Dr Shaali Makame Ame shared, “With the new strategy, Unlimit Health has opened the scope of support for other parasitic diseases, particularly lymphatic filariasis. It is now easier for the programme to work with this kind of support. For example, when we are planning for our mass drug administration (MDA), we are much safer as there is no kind of questioning. With what Unlimit Health is now doing in Zanzibar, I can say that the country has already taken some ownership of the programme because we are involved in activities from the very beginning, including the development of proposals and planning”.
More can be done to reach elimination goals
“Unlimit Health has led work in cross-cutting approaches such as leveraging One Health strategies and undertaking community-led WASH interventions to reduce schistosomiasis in Uganda. These are paradigm-shifting approaches to schistosomiasis and NTD interventions. An area of further development could be leveraging these approaches to support community-led vector management strategies, combining these with WASH and One Health to ensure communities and local solutions are responsive and resilient to environmental changes, strengthening climate resilience and sustainability”, suggested Dr Gouvras.
Furthermore, Dr Shaali added, “Unlimit Health has been the only partner supporting us in controlling NTDs, including schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis, and lymphatic filariasis with drug distribution and sensitisation, and advocacy. Without them, things could be worse. But if we want to achieve the WHO roadmap, other long-term support is needed for systems strengthening and capacity building. For example, issues of diagnostics, monitoring and evaluation, and accessing logistics and advocacy may need long-term training so that we can have skilled people who can do monitoring of different programme indicators by themselves to deliver what is supposed to be delivered quickly”.
Looking back to move forward
“Preparations for a series of predefined, country-led pilot studies are currently underway, including product shipments, with implementation expected to commence in early 2025. These pilots will play a vital role in evaluating the treatment’s impact and advancing progress toward schistosomiasis elimination”, said Dr de Ruiter.
We draw inspiration from these reflections shared by our partners and reinvigorate our efforts toward achieving our strategic goals, and ultimately those laid out in the WHO roadmap.
Dr Gouvras concluded, “Unlimit Health continues to work with diverse partners to build technical know-how, generate evidence, and share findings using a cross-cutting, collaborative approach. This approach means we all benefit, increasing capacity and strengthening the effectiveness of interventions and strategies to eliminate schistosomiasis”.
Read our full series on re-imagining global health