GHS Launches 2026 Integrated Mass Drug Administration Campaign To Eliminate NTDs
The Service has officially launched its 2026 Integrated Mass Drug Administration (MDA) Campaign, a major public health intervention aimed at eliminating three debilitating Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs): Onchocerciasis (River Blindness), Lymphatic Filariasis (Elephantiasis), and Schistosomiasis (Bilharzia).
Dr Franklin Asiedu-Bekoe, Director of the Public Health Division, welcomed stakeholders and emphasised that this year’s intervention is a key milestone toward achieving the national goal of eliminating these diseases as public health problems by 2030.
He noted that the integrated campaign will provide safe and effective medicines across affected communities nationwide from 20th June to 3rd July 2026.
He emphasised that the media’s partnership is essential to share accurate information, mobilise communities, and ensure maximum public participation.
Delivering the keynote address, the Director-General of the Service, Dr Samuel Kaba Akoriyea, officially declared the campaign open, noting that while these NTDs are entirely preventable and treatable, they continue to cause severe disability, social stigma, and economic hardship for affected families.
He therefore stressed that elimination is a social and economic necessity, as these conditions keep children out of school and reduce household incomes.
According to Dr Akoriyea, the campaign will target Onchocerciasis by aiming to reach 6.7 million people across 86 districts in 15 regions.
For Lymphatic Filariasis, where transmission has already been interrupted in 114 out of 117 endemic districts, the 2026 campaign will focus heavily on the final two endemic districts, targeting approximately 266,000 people.
He continued that to tackle Schistosomiasis, community deworming will be deployed across 13 districts in eight regions to protect over one million people, alongside efforts to improve water, sanitation, hygiene, and environmental management.
Representatives from key global and local health partners were also present at the launch to express their solidarity and pledge continuous support.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) highlighted that mass drug administration carried out for communities and school-age children—including school-based deworming for soil-transmitted helminthiasis done in collaboration with the Ghana Education Service remains a proven strategy to reduce lifelong complications.
Sightsavers congratulated the GHS on its historic milestones, pointing out that while blindness was once very common on Ghana’s streets, trachoma has now been eliminated as a public health problem and river blindness has dropped to very low levels.
Additionally, Medicines Development for Global Health (MDGH) praised the meticulous work of community drug distributors and celebrated Ghana’s leadership as the first country to implement moxidectin, a newly researched medicine used as an additional tool to accelerate the elimination of river blindness.
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