Dispatch from ISID-NTD conference in Boston, July 8-10 by Karolina Maciag

Greetings UAEMers, from the first NTD Meeting of the International Society for Infectious Diseases!

All talk and poster abstracts from the meeting are available here; a great blog post about the meeting by Peter Hotez and Bernard Pecoul is here.

The meeting is rather special because it focused only on the NTDs, not the Big Three – in response to the needs of ISID’s members from resource-poor countries and the overall neglect of these diseases in the research community.
 
The ND group used this opportunity to inform the NTD community of UAEM’s mission in this arena. I presented a poster prepared by Alex L, Laura M, Gloria T, Mike G, Ethan G and me, summarizing the policy recommendations gleaned from our ND-university innovation symposium last November. Despite being banished to the far end of the room the “policy corner”- our poster and MSF Access’s poster on funding/payment de-linkage presented by Judit Rius – was rather well attended.
 
I also tacked up some of our key publications below the poster, and brought 5-10 copies of each. By the end of the meeting, I was astounded to see that of ~40-50 copies of papers I’d stacked under the poster, only three remained. That made my day… there is clearly a lot of interest and traction for UAEM among the NTD research community. While I did not solicit sign-ons to academicsforaccess.org, we may think of doing so at future conferences.
 
Happily, the head honchos at ISID suggested forging a partnership. This will be very similar to the informal partnership that we have with ASTMH. Clearly, they want more UAEMers to become ISID members (free!); on the flip side, the resources they offer are great, including (a few) grant opportunities and a growing database of NTD researchers – something we’ve wanted to create for years, but need not re-invent the wheel - which will speed our faculty outreach.
 
Many talks were fascinating (again, refer to the abstract book), but I’ll focus on just a few key points to follow up on.
 
Solomon Nwaka spoke on ANDI, the budding network of African regional centers of excellence in scientific research. ANDI is underpinned by inter-regional as well as international collaborations. I got to ask Nwaka whether there was room for/a role for students within this network, noting the queries Pratik and I receive, not infrequently, from international students regarding research opportunities. He seemed welcoming and open to a collaboration with UAEM to publicize opportunities as they arise, and we will be following up with him shortly.
 
Interestingly, Luciano Savioli of the WHO  promoted drug donation problems during his talk on large scale drug administration – and pointed out issues with generic provision. He particularly identified quality issues and supply chain shortages as issues that arise when relying on the private markets, and that can be circumvented with a well-managed drug donation program. I stood up to ask “when, in his opinion, generic provision could be effective.” Unfortunately, I did not get the nod, and couldn’t find him later.
 
This dependence on one manufacturer per drug contrasted with Dr Pem Namgyal’s (also of WHO) call in a later talk on dengue vaccines: “We need more vaccine manufacturers to meet global demand and enhance access to affordable vaccines.”
 
Less UAEM-related, but a standout among the talks was Eileen Stillwaggon’s talk on the effect of NTDs and HIV – a striking fact: active schistosomiasis in female patients increases the risk of HIV transmission about threefold. Thus, treating NTDs carries the extended benefit of being a low-hanging fruit for HIV control.
 
In the past, critics have disbelieved UAEM’s claim that cheaper medical products will actually improve human health. Should you encounter this in your work, please do let them know that implementation is leaping forward, and a great example is new distribution programs that involve communities and vastly increase reach  (ie, APOC vs OCP: two onchocerciasis elimination programs, the one that involves communities is far more efficient).
 
Among the research posters presented, it was great to see investigators from all around the world, especially endemic countries. However, the conspicuous shortage of contributions from the leading biomedical centers in the world underscores our call for funding and prioritization of NTD research at the world’s leading institutions.

Overall, many talks highlighted progress and challenges ahead; it was noted that there was no “magic bullet” drug candidate, sanitation policy, or policy intervention to provide a cure-all, but that ministries of health, communities, researchers, physicians, policy experts, NGOs, etc, etc all play important roles.

All the best,
Karolina