ECLIPSE is a five-year, cross-cultural, applied health programme to improve the physical and mental health outcomes of people with CL and to empower CL-affected communities in Brazil, Ethiopia and Sri Lanka. The ECLIPSE team are working towards a patient journey that is holistic, patient-centred and mapped on a biopsychosocial model of the disease. By doing so, ECLIPSE will be contributing to both the WHO’s ambition of ensuring accessible healthcare for all and the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal of improving health and well-being. five
This will be achieved through the following interlinked objectives:
Two types of interventions are being co-developed, implemented, and evaluated in each ECLIPSE country, aimed at promoting early diagnosis and treatment-seeking behavior, decreasing social isolation and stigma, empowering CL-endemic communities, and improving treatment pathways. These interventions consist of (1) community-based campaigns to raise awareness and reduce stigma of CL and (2) training packages for community health workers.
Policy recommendations are being made to address any identified gaps in public health provision related to CL. Policy change is being facilitated by the establishment of an ECLIPSE Policy Network, with policymakers from across the three ECLIPSE countries. This network promotes knowledge mobilization from researchers to policymakers and encourages knowledge exchange among policymakers through the sharing of ‘best practice’.
A transcontinental ECLIPSE consortium is being established for the duration of the ECLIPSE programme, aimed at promoting rapid cross-cultural knowledge exchange between the countries.
Examples of this can be found in our interventions tab.
ECLIPSE is generating a comprehensive and robust knowledge base of CL, through the publication of systematic and scoping reviews, qualitative and ethnographic papers, and implementation evaluation papers on the ECLIPSE interventions. A key contribution is also being made through the creation of a biopsychosocial model of CL in LMICs, which is embedded in the syndemics theoretical framework to understand how this disease intersects with local economic, social, and cultural factors.
See our publications here.
A busy network of affected individuals, community stakeholders, healthcare practitioners, and policymakers has been developed to drive forward routine implementation of ECLIPSE interventions and strategies on a national and international level in CL-endemic regions. Policymakers are firmly involved in ensuring the sustainability of the ECLIPSE interventions through the ECLIPSE Policy Network.
A cohort of Early Career Researchers (ECRs) from across the partnership countries is being established. The academic capacity of ECRs is being enhanced through an interdisciplinary training and mentorship program. Senior researchers are also receiving career development training to strengthen their leadership skills and further develop their own research groups.