Effectiveness and efficiency of integrating delivery of neglected tropical disease programs.

Background: Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) affect over one billion people globally, resulting in severe disability and disfigurement. With recent calls to eliminate or control many of the NTDs, experts and policy makers recommend integrating NTD programs in co-endemic areas to achieve greater health impact and efficiency. While some evidence supports the beneficial effects of integrating NTD programs to optimize coverage and reduce costs in research settings, there is minimal information regarding when or how to effectively operationalize program integration. The lack of systematic analyses of integration experiences and of integration processes may act as an impediment to achieving more effective NTD programming. We aimed to learn about the experiences of a range of NTD stakeholders and their perceptions of integration (Chapter 2), evaluate the effectiveness and synergy of multisectorial approaches to NTD control (Chapter 3), and determine the costs and cost drivers of a sub-national integrated NTD program operating at scale (Chapter 4).
Methodology: We used a multi-disciplined approach to study how NTD integration is implemented and the effects of integration in terms of the key programmatic outcomes of effectiveness and efficiency.