They rarely make headlines, yet they affect one billion people every year. Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) are a group of infectious diseases that disproportionately affect communities living in poverty. Despite their vast impact, they have historically received far less attention and funding for research than other major diseases.
In sub-Saharan Africa, their consequences are especially severe, leading to blindness, disfigurement, chronic illness, and impaired child development. Although progress is being made, the overall burden remains high and global targets to prevent, control and eliminate these diseases are still far from being achieved. In this context, vaccines are emerging as one of the most powerful yet underused tools in the fight against NTDs.
Building a future with vaccines against NTDs
In 2025, Global Health EDCTP3 launched a funding call to accelerate the development of prophylactic vaccines against NTDs in sub-Saharan Africa. The call sought projects that could generate late-stage clinical data on novel or existing vaccines, improve understanding of barriers to vaccine progression, and produce clinical data from vulnerable and underrepresented populations.
Three projects were awarded a combined investment of over €40 million: DENSTAR, EAVI and ACT-CHIK. Together, they target dengue and chikungunya, two mosquito-borne viral diseases causing growing health and economic burdens across the region.
DENSTAR: Testing a vaccine for dengue
Dengue is caused by four virus serotypes, meaning a vaccine must protect against all four to avoid incomplete immunity, which can increase the risk of severe disease after a subsequent infection. Existing vaccines have significant limitations, and none are approved for young children.
The DENSTAR project will test DengiAll, a single-dose vaccine designed to provide balanced protection against all four dengue serotypes, with the aim of reducing the risk of severe reactions and improving suitability for use in African health systems. The project will first conduct a safety study in Mozambique in adults, gradually extending to younger age groups down to two years old. If safety is confirmed, a larger trial will follow in Mozambique, Ghana and the Democratic Republic of the Congo to assess immune responses and potential protection.
'Dengue infections can range from mild to potentially fatal in the most severe cases. It is also becoming more common in sub-Saharan Africa, driven primarily by climate change. The primary challenge of the DENSTAR project is to advance a live-attenuated tetravalent dengue vaccine through immunobridging and controlled human infection model studies to enable its licensure in sub-Saharan Africa, where dengue infections have become more common.'
Ellis Owusu-Dabo, Professor of Epidemiology and Global Health, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology
Global Health EDCTP3 funding: €11 million
This project further expands Global Health EDCTP3’s investments in dengue research, supporting the development of improved prevention tools, strengthening vaccine development efforts, and enhancing preparedness against mosquito-borne diseases in sub-Saharan Africa.
EAVI: Accelerating clinical trials for NTD vaccines in Africa
Even when vaccines exist, their use in African populations is not automatic, as regulators often lack clinical trial data from local settings and from groups with different immune profiles and co-infections such as HIV and malaria. The EAVI project will address this gap by strengthening Europe-Africa collaboration to improve how NTD vaccines are tested and introduced across the continent.
'EAVI will deliver something that simply does not exist yet: safety and immunogenicity data on a chikungunya vaccine from African populations, including people living with HIV. These data will directly inform evidence-based decisions on whether and how the vaccine should be introduced.'
Dr Maxmillian Mpina, Senior Research Scientist and LMIC Consortium Project Coordinator
Using the chikungunya vaccine IXCHIQ as a starting point, the project will generate missing safety and immunogenicity data in people living with and without HIV, through a clinical trial in Kenya and Tanzania, alongside community surveillance of chikungunya exposure and virus evolution.
Beyond chikungunya, EAVI will set the foundations for future NTD vaccine trials in Africa by developing protocols and training materials, engaging national stakeholders, and identifying community-level barriers to clinical research.
Global Health EDCTP3 funding: €13.6 million, with additional resources expected from contributing partners and other co-funders.
ACT-CHIK: Accelerating clinical trials for chikungunya vaccine in Africa
Chikungunya is a mosquito-borne virus that causes fever, headache and often long-lasting, severe joint pain that can persist for months or even years. Despite being widespread across sub-Saharan Africa, it is frequently underdiagnosed and underreported because the symptoms overlap with other diseases.
The ACT-CHIK project will conduct clinical trials in Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda to evaluate the safety and immune responses of MV-CHIK, a single-dose chikungunya vaccine based on a measles virus backbone. The vaccine is designed to generate strong immune responses and is particularly suited to resource-limited settings thanks to its highly stable, freeze-dried formulation. Additionally, the project will prepare for the future manufacturing of the MV-CHICK in sub-Saharan Africa.
Global Health EDCTP3 funding: €15.2 million
These projects build on and broaden Global Health EDCTP3’s portfolio in NTD research, supporting improved prevention, diagnosis and treatment approaches, while strengthening control strategies and health system capacity across sub-Saharan Africa.
Details
- Publication date
- 11 June 2026
- Author
- Global Health EDCTP3 Joint Undertaking