Report of the third meeting of the WHO Diagnostic Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases: virtual meeting, 3 June 2021

Overview

Due to the ongoing coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic, the third meeting of the Diagnostic Technical Advisory Group for Neglected Tropical Diseases (DTAG), an advisory group to the World Health Organization’s Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (WHO/NTD), was held virtually, on 3 June 2021.

The meeting was opened by Dr Mwelecele Ntuli Malecela, Director, WHO/NTD, who offered thanks and congratulations to members of the DTAG and its subgroups on progress made since the DTAG began its work in October 2019. The DTAG plays an essential role in ensuring that diagnostics are available, field-ready and capable of supporting programme needs, while disease-specific subgroups have made significant progress in elaborating target product profiles (TPPs) for the development of crucial new diagnostics. The cross-cutting subgroups have now been launched and are poised to address critical issues in diagnostics that span the entire portfolio of NTDs.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic was seen to be a demonstration of what is possible in the diagnostics field when investment, innovation and collaboration combine. The DTAG is key to harnessing these resources to fill the diagnostic needs of NTD programmes.