Activities of the DNTDs
Memento Prize Winner 2019: Prof. Jürgen May, DNTDs Honorary Member

Three Memento Prize Winners on the Board of the German Network
Berlin, February 20, 2019. This year, the Memento Prize is awarded to Prof. Jürgen May of the Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine (BNITM). The 5000-euro prize was awarded in recognition of May's research on serious infectious diseases in children in Sub-Saharan Africa. Many infectious diseases in areas of Sub-Saharan Africa are caused by pathogens, which are not detected due to a lack of diagnostics and therefore not treated, even though the corresponding medications would be available. May's working group in Hamburg and Kumasi (Ghana) was able to identify the causes of the infectious diseases in various hospitals in the Ashanti region. “Serious infectious diseases often have multiple triggers. People then suffer from a variety of diseases. These coinfections, which are caused by parasites, bacteria or viruses and often count as neglected tropical diseases, worsen the course of the disease,” explains May.
“We congratulate Prof. Jürgen May on winning the Memento Prize 2019,” says Prof. Achim Hörauf, Spokesperson of the Board of the German Network against Neglected Tropical Diseases (DNTDs). “With his work and his tremendous dedication, Professor May has made a considerable contribution to the fight against neglected tropical diseases. “
Prof. Jürgen May is now the third scientific board member of the DNTDs to have been awarded the Memento Prize. In 2017, the prize went to Dr Carsten Köhler, Director of the Competence Center for Tropical Medicine at the University of Tübingen, for demonstrating the efficacy of a simplified artemisinin therapy in children with severe malaria and in 2015, to Prof. Achim Hörauf of the University Hospital Bonn for developing a therapy to combat parasitic roundworms (lymphatic filariasis).
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Impetus from Baden-Württemberg in the Fight against Neglected Tropical Diseases

German Network against Neglected Tropical Diseases (DNTDs) Supports Engagement in German States
Stuttgart/Berlin, 07 February 2019 – Baden-Württemberg has the highest number of academic institutions operating in the field of neglected tropical diseases across Germany and they boast a very high level of expertise. The federal state is also Germany's number one location in terms of the pharmaceutical industry.
Experts presented their activities in the fight against neglected tropical diseases at the joint meeting of BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg, the Association of Research-Based Pharmaceutical Companies (vfa), the German network against neglected tropical diseases (DNTDs) and the BPI [German Pharmaceutical Industry Association] Baden-Württemberg.
Till Bärnighausen, Head of the Institute of Global Health at the University of Heidelberg, underlined that a collaborative approach involving politics, science, the pharmaceutical industry and civil society is crucial to the success of an initiative. Carsten Köhler, Director of the Competence Center for Tropical Medicine Baden-Württemberg at the University and University Hospital Tübingen, indicated that, in addition to humanitarian aid, technological advances are also a key driver of activities. He stated that there is a large gap when it comes to researching simple diagnostics for many NTDs, as neglected tropical diseases as a whole vary greatly. Barbara Jonishkeit of BIOPRO Baden-Württemberg believed that it is particularly useful in Baden-Württemberg to convince family companies of the expertise in this field in order to develop further markets. Franz Werner Haas of CureVac AG and Manfred Klevesath of Merck also took to the podium to represent the pharmaceutical industry. As a representative of an NGO, Gisela Schneider, Director of DIFÄM (German Institute for Medical Mission) highlighted collaboration with the existing networks on site, such as religious organizations, emphasizing that they are particularly important in terms of treatment success and, ultimately, eradication of the NTDs.
Read more … Impetus from Baden-Württemberg in the Fight against Neglected Tropical Diseases
Increased Focus on Neglected Tropical Diseases in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ)

An Informal Chat with the Parliamentary State Secretary from the BMZ
Berlin, 30 January 2019 – As part of an informal chat hosted by the German Network against Neglected Tropical Diseases in collaboration with the Parliamentarian Board to Fight NTDs and Strengthen Health Systems, Dr Maria Flachsbarth, Parliamentary State Secretary in the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), emphasized the federal government's strong commitment to global health policy.
Although the considerable resources dedicated to global health policy – one billion euro each year – are channeled into the large-scale multilateral programs of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (GFATM) and the GAVI vaccination programs, neglected tropical diseases are becoming increasingly important, said Dr Flachsbarth. The BMZ is campaigning to see NTDs taken into consideration by the GFATM in future. Dr Flachsbarth said it is clear that the holistic approach of the German development programs – which is also prioritized in the sustainable development goals (SDGs) – and therefore a “frontal attack” on an individual disease is not preferable. Neglected tropical diseases could benefit from cross-disciplinary approaches such as One Health and WASH and this is already happening in some areas.
In the open discussion, in which the audience was also included, it became clear that the fight against NTDs could also gain in importance in German development cooperation. The DNTDs emphasized that its members can support the BMZ in designing and launching programs to combat NTDs.
Networks from Canada, France, Germany, Japan and Switzerland at the Annual Meet-up of the Coalition for Operational Research on Neglected Tropical Diseases

New Orleans/Berlin 26.10.2016 – Representatives from Canadian, French, German, Japanese and Swiss networks against neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) came together at the meeting of the Coalition for Operational Research on Neglected Tropical Diseases (COR-NTD). This year’s topic was “Engage to Eliminate”. Prof. Dr. Achim Hörauf, speaker of the German Network Against NTDs and Director of the Institute for Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, University Bonn said “in the coming year, experts and Uniting to Combat NTDs (UTC) will try to plan a workshop for these networks”.
COR-NTD is a group of researchers, program implementers and their in-country partners with the shared goal of optimizing NTD control and elimination. Its aim is to create new synergies within the operational research arena for NTDs and align that research with specific program needs.
Workshop at the World Health Summit: Neglected Tropical Diseases and their Co-Morbidities
