CENTD is an international Consortium of Experts in Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), with a focus on helminth diseases. The consortium aims to tackle important challenges in the NTD-space by both an international and multidisciplinary approach, and by fostering partnerships in research, education and services. CENTD is coordinated by the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine at Ghent University (Belgium), and supported by Ghent University, VLIR-UOS (Belgium) and the members.
Some of the members of the NeuroSolve Project consortium are also members of the CENTD network, namely Prof. Sarah Gabriel (Co-Chair of the Network), Prof. Helena Ngowi, Dr. Bernard Ngowi and Prof. Kabemba E. Mwape.
The Consortium of Experts in Neglected Tropical Diseases (CENTD) was established to unite researchers with expertise in, and willingness to contribute on, following identified challenges: (1) the lack of quantitative health risk analysis required both to understand the true health and socio-economic impact of NTDs and their sociodemographic determinants, and to ultimately identify the most cost-effective control strategies, (2) the poor efficacy of drugs due to the inherent low efficacy of the drugs, poor drug quality and the potential emergence of drug resistance, (3) the lack of sensitive and affordable point-of-care diagnostic tools, (4) the poor coverage of interventions due to insufficient use of existing delivery platforms, lack of well-validated control options or low community participation, and (5) the limited translation of research-based evidence into practice, policy and public health improvements. The network brings together researchers from across the world to tackle these challenges.
The NeuroSolve Project members of the network were invited to be part of the meetings held in the week from 31st March 2025 to 4th April 2025 in Ghent, and to give a presentation on the research activities related to the project.
Picture 1: Dr. Lisa Van Acker (NeuroSolve PhD student) gave her presentation during the CENTD meeting 2025 in Ghent
Picture 2: some members of NeuroSolve Consortium attending the CENTD meeting 2025 in Ghent