ATRAP wins NTD Innovation Prize 2023
At the closing plenary of the NTD NGO Network Conference in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, ATRAP was awarded the prestigious 2023 NTD Innovation Prize, a $40,000 grant recognising its groundbreaking community-driven approach to mapping and controlling snail‑borne diseases in Africa.
Tackling an invisible threat through active community involvement
ATRAP brings local communities to the forefront by training 50 local residents in Uganda and the Democratic Republic of Congo to tackle snail-borne diseases. From 2020 to 2023, these local residents, also called citizen scientists, collected weekly snail data from over 100 water contact sites, using rigorous protocols to identify potential disease hotspots. This resulted in an unprecedentedly large dataset (over 28,000 reports) with over 70% agreement in snail presence and absence between the citizen scientists and expert malacologists. Even more impressive, ATRAP’s citizen science model operates at approximately one‑eighth the cost of professional monitoring
With Prize funding, ATRAP plans to augment their citizen-led surveys with environmental DNA (eDNA) and LAMP-based testing to detect infections in real time. The initiative will also integrate remote-sensing and advanced spatio-temporal modelling to produce dynamic risk maps and forecasts under varied environmental conditions, including climate change. This data will be made openly available to democratize access to snail and disease distribution data.
About the NTD Innovation Prize
Established in 2019 by American Leprosy Missions in partnership with Novartis and the NTD NGO Network, the annual NTD Innovation Prize rewards transformative ideas in the fight against neglected tropical diseases.
