Report of the sixth WHO Advisory Group meeting on Buruli ulcer
10–13 March 2003, WHO Headquarters, Geneva, Switzerland
Overview
In 1998, the World Health Organization (WHO) established the Global Buruli Ulcer Initiative (GBUI) with financial support from the Nippon Foundation in response to the growing spread and impact of the disease. That same year, WHO established an 18-member Advisory Group to guide its activities on Buruli ulcer. Members meet every March in Geneva and represent some of the world’s experts on the disease in the areas of control, management and research.
During the past few years, the scope of this meeting has broadened to allow some field health workers from endemic countries, researchers and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) currently involved in Buruli ulcer control activities to attend and present their work. The meeting is an important part of global advocacy and a necessary component of efforts to raise awareness and interest about this poorly known disease, to share and disseminate new information and to coordinate efforts among endemic countries, researchers and NGOs.
The 2003 meeting was aimed at assembling experiences and evidence to date with a view to intensifying control activities at country level and accelerating priority research. The objectives of the meeting were:
- To agree on a common strategy for intensifying control activities in selected priority countries and to develop synergies with other disease control activities to enhance Buruli ulcer control.
- To review national action plans for intensifying control activities.
- To examine ways to strengthen the delivery of health services through the implementation of Buruli ulcer control activities.
- To implement the activities in research priorities on Buruli ulcer.
- To strengthen collaboration and coordination among NGOs and to reach out to new ones.
- To explore mechanisms for better fundraising to meet the above objectives.