The Global Health Institute presenting at the ‘International Society of Neglected Tropical Diseases (ISNTD) Festival’ in London

The ISNTD Festival brought together the best in communication, arts, entertainment and science to trigger and facilitate that complex public health messages reach the global health community worldwide.

The Festival provides a great forum for discussion on innovations around disease awareness, advocacy, behavioral interventions and education, amongst other aspects.

Structured in panel sessions and workshops tackling a variety of communication modalities (e.g. theatre, comedy, mobile gaming…), the Festival represented the opportunity to exchange about progresses and challenges as well as new initiatives towards contributing to the control and elimination of infectious diseases.

This year, the focus of the Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, presentation by Claude Oeuvray (Head of Global Health Development Program for the Global Health Institute) was on the ‘Anti Malaria’ program which aims to develop and deliver innovative and integrated health solutions for the most vulnerable populations. More specifically, through tangible examples, the creative and transversal communication approach used to engage the Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, community in the fight against malaria in the last years has been presented; this to underline the need within private sectors to create awareness and build engagement to endorse the malaria cause.

In addition, as the Global Health efforts at Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, continue to actively address the unmet medical needs associated to NTDs, the initiatives and programs on schistosomiasis have been showcased at the Festival, thus allowing an ongoing dialogue with the NTD and Global Health community at the event. The #MakingSchistory campaign (promoted by Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, through the Global Schistosomiasis Alliance) was granted the ISNTD Award for Campaigns at the event.

For more information on ISNTD, please consult: https://www.isntd.org/