Introduction Toolkit pages
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) affect more than a billion people worldwide. Many people affected by NTDs are not treated in time or are not treated at all and suffer from severe complications, impairments, and disabilities. These complications can often trigger stigma and discrimination. A significant proportion suffers from poor mental wellbeing such as depression and or anxiety, which is often associated with experiences of exclusion and discrimination.
Stigma guides
The Stigma Guides provide best practice information and recommendations from various disciplines on how stigma manifests, how it can be reduced, and the tools available to assess the experience of stigma and mental wellbeing. Although written with a focus on NTDs, the content is relevant for people working to address all forms of health-related stigma and promote mental wellbeing in their interventions, policies, trainings, care packages, evaluations, or other services.
NMD toolkit
Many NTDs have disabling consequences. Well-known examples include leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, trachoma, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, and Buruli ulcer.
There is an urgent need for more data on disease complications and other aspects of disability among affected persons. These data are vital for political advocacy, fundraising, needs assessments, programme management, and intervention evaluation. One reason for the current data gap is the lack of agreed instruments to assess the various aspects of NTD impairments.
Because of the similarities in the aspects between NTDs, it is possible to use the NMD toolkit for this purpose.