WHO publishes manual for neglected tropical diseases

A manual designed to help health workers better administer and manage the safety of people who benefit from free medicines for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) has been published by the World Health Organisation (WHO). The manual, ‘Safety in administering medicines for neglected tropical diseases’, provides practical tools including training modules and job aids to further improve the planning, preparation and monitoring of safe administration of medicines mainly to treat the NTDs amenable to preventive chemotherapy, and also for diseases that require individual case management. Although the manual can be used as a standalone reference document, it should be employed in conjunction with its accompanying training modules, which provide practical instructions. The manual does not make new recommendations but aims to consolidate and emphasize the critical aspects of WHO’s existing guidance on the safe and efficacious administration of medicines to more than a billion people a year.