Report of a joint mission to review the neglected tropical disease programme and supply chain management for donated preventive chemotherapy medicines

Overview

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends preventive chemotherapy (PC) as part of strategies to control and eliminate lymphatic filariasis (LF), onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis (SCH), soil-transmitted helminthiases (STH) and trachoma. A major challenge observed in the past few years concerns the accuracy of information on medicines donated to countries in which these neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are endemic and the discrepancies between the quantities of PC medicines supplied and the data reported on treatment. As a result, significant quantities of medicines remain unaccounted for globally. To better understand and address this issue in Mozambique, the Ministry of Health officially requested WHO to provide technical assistance. The Expanded Special Project for Elimination of Neglected Tropical Diseases(ESPEN) of the WHO Regional Office for Africa facilitated a joint mission by the WHO Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases at headquarters, the WHO Country Office in Mozambique and the NTD team at the Ministry of Health of Mozambique on 10–17 December 2019 to reconcile reported data and actual stocks of medicines available in the country, confirm any expiry of medicines used for treatment of NTDs amenable to PC, explore the reasons for any expiry and implement corrective measures to minimize expiry of medicines in future. The members of the mission team and the persons met are listed in the annex to this report.

The objectives of the mission were:

• to conduct a rapid review of the supply chain management system for PC-NTDmedicines, assess the status of the inventory of PC medicines and provide technical support to address challenges affecting the supply chain management system;
• to assist the Ministry of Health of Mozambique in completing the joint application package (JAP) for PC medicines; and
• to conduct a rapid analysis of PC programme implementation and provide technical support to address any identified challenges.