The Lancet Global Health: Monitoring equity in universal health coverage with essential services for neglected tropical diseases: an analysis of data reported for five diseases in 123 countries over 9 years
Christopher Fitzpatrick, health economist at the WHO’s Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases, and colleagues discuss the development of an NTD service coverage index to monitor progress toward universal health coverage (UHC). The authors write, “Comparing the NTD and UHC service coverage indices reveals that some countries that are performing well by the measure of the UHC service coverage index still have work to do in prioritizing services for their poorest and otherwise most marginalized communities. Our results offer hope that socioeconomic barriers to health service coverage can be overcome” (7/24).

The Lancet Global Health: Preventive chemotherapy coverage for neglected tropical diseases: does one metric fit all?
Citing the analysis done by Fitzpatrick and colleagues, Elizabeth A. Cromwell, assistant professor, and Nancy Fullman, scientific adviser, both at the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME), discuss mass drug administration (MDA) of preventive chemotherapy for NTDs, writing, “Timely tracking of MDA program performance within broader health systems is important, particularly as countries aim to improve interventions to control and eliminate NTDs. Yet such efforts also must reflect the unique nature of MDA, which can vary between NTDs and locales — a challenge when developing one metric to fit all monitoring needs” (7/24).