AfricaMuseum project wins the NTD Innovation Prize
The ATRAP (Action Towards Reducing Aquatic snail-borne Parasitic diseases) project has won the international NTD Innovation Prize for its pioneering work on bilharzia, a tropical infectious disease, in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Snail-borne diseases such as schistosomiasis and fascioliasis are a major health problem in Africa, affecting both humans and animals. Traditional drug treatments are insufficient to combat these diseases, but the lack of experts and data on snail locations makes it difficult to control the snails themselves.
The ATRAP project has been working with communities in Western Uganda and Kongo Central (DRC) since 2019 to develop innovative and inclusive surveillance and awareness-raising tools to prevent neglected tropical diseases such as bilharzia.
The innovative aspect of the project is the collaboration between scientists and local communities to monitor disease vectors in their environment and develop awareness campaigns.
American Leprosy Missions, in partnership with Novartis, has just awarded its fifth annual NTD Innovation Prize of $40,000 to the ATRAP project during an international conference on the control of neglected tropical diseases in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
ATRAP is a five-year project coordinated by Tine Huyse (AfricaMuseum), Casim Umba Tolo (MUST University, Uganda) and Joule Madinga (INRB, DRC). It is funded by Belgium via the Directorate General for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid.