Berlin/Würzburg 22 May 2019 – With the plea “Stop diseases of poverty. Together, we can do it!”, Dr Gerd Müller, Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development, addressed the roughly 150 guests invited to the initial symposium of the German Center (DZVT) for the Multisectoral Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases at the Würzburg residence. “This will provide light and hope,” he said in support of the work by experts from the fields of science, civil society and the private sector, who presented their contributions to the multisectoral control of neglected tropical diseases. Seven founding institutions, renowned stakeholders from academia, civil society and the church, have joined forces to present the global health system with a holistic approach to combatting NTDs. This approach goes far beyond infection research: It ranges from applied economics, logistics, political science and sociology through to ecology, climate research and medical science and is ideally both applied and translational. The goal is to make Würzburg a national leader with far-reaching international visibility in researching and combatting neglected tropical diseases and to thereby give rise to Global Health 4.0.
