Neglected Tropical Diseases of the Skin

The medical microbiology laboratory should be prepared for emerging infectious diseases due to ever increasing international travel and global climate changes. This also applies to neglected tropical diseases of the skin (skin NTDs) including Buruli ulcer, leprosy, filariasis, onchocerciasis, leishmaniasis, and yaws..Next generation sequencing is an advanced diagnostic tool capable for the fast detection of pathogens in clinical samples. Here, we propose a feasibility study to identify the technical parameters to diagnose and differentiate between the pathogens causing skin NTDs. Such a tool is essential to prevent severe morbidity by starting appropriate treatment, and is a tight fit with the new WHO approach towards skin NTDs, which advocates an integrated approach to prevent and manage these diseases and identifies an urgent need for the development of adequate diagnostic testing that allows detection of all pathogens causing them..The feasibility project will define a Target Product Profile for the skin NTD diagnostic platform, the challenges that need to be addressed, and the technology partners for the development and implementation.