Humanitarian Networks and Partnership Week

MENTOR was delighted to join the panel discussing scaling health innovations in emergencies at the Humanitarian Networks and Partnerships Weeks – HNPW in Geneva on Tuesday (10 March). Led by Creating Hope in Conflict: a Humanitarian Grand Challenge and Gray Dot Catalyst, the session focused on how building value networks to scale up innovations is […]
World NTD Day 2026

In 2025 MENTOR programme teams supported the delivery of essential treatments and vector control, and helped strengthen health systems, to address the high risk of neglected tropical diseases in South Sudan, Syria and Angola. They overcame significant challenges to reach communities cut off by flooding, affected by conflict, far from health services, or displaced, to […]
NTD control in Syria

Over 93,000 homes and 51,600 temporary shelters across Aleppo and Idleb Governorates were sprayed with WHO-approved insecticide to address the high threat of cutaneous leishmaniasis in the region. MENTOR carried out the large-scale Indoor Residual Spraying (IRS) campaign in northwest Syria between May and September 2025 to protect more than 799,000 people, including many that have […]
New Vector-Borne Disease Units open in Syria

MENTOR recently opened two Vector-Borne Disease Units in Azaz and Idleb City as part of ongoing efforts to address the high rates of leishmaniasis in northern Syria. These unique units, funded by The Aid Fund for Syria, provide free diagnosis, treatment and essential medicines for patients, and coordinate wider prevention and care through 48 health […]
WHO recommends new vector control tools for malaria

The World Health Organization has issued a new recommendation for the use of spatial repellents, an innovative vector control tool for the control of malaria. This new class of spatial emanators emit transfluthrin into the air repelling and killing mosquitoes whilst being safe for people. WHO’s prequalification of SC Johnson’s Shield and Guardian spatial repellents […]
Research from spatial repellent trial in Syria published in BMC Medicine journal

Research from a trial evaluating the efficacy of Mosquito Shield™ spatial repellent in reducing cases of cutaneous leishmaniasis in displacement camps in North-East Syria was published in BMC Medicine journal on 3 July. The results are significant and provide the first demonstrable impact of spatial repellents on cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) transmission, particularly in fragile, humanitarian […]
Enhancing protection against vector-borne diseases in forcibly displaced communities: evaluating the efficacy of spatial repellents for cutaneous leishmaniasis control in North-East Syria

In Syria, during the 14 years after the outbreak of civil war, 16.7 million people have been forced to flee their homes, of which 7.2 million remain internally displaced in 2025. Breakdown in waste management caused by aerial bombardment has created ideal conditions for cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) transmission, vectored by phlebotomine sandflies. Displaced populations reside in […]
World NTD Day 2025

MENTOR works in some of the most vulnerable settings to prevent and treat neglected tropical diseases, a group of diseases that affect more than 1 billion people worldwide. Together with our partners we are helping to reduce the harm and suffering from NTDs in communities disproportionately affected by a lack of healthcare, climate change, and […]
Mohamad Agha Alkalaa
Annual meeting for global tropical research, 13 to 17 November 2024

The MENTOR Initiative is back at the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH) annual meeting sharing insights from our programmes and learning from important research from across the world on tropical diseases management. MENTOR is once again presenting research on a range of topics aimed at showcasing our work in some of the […]