Baroness Helene Hayman speaks at the House of Lords on NTDs

January 26th, 2012 by admin No comments »

Baroness Helene Hayman, Recent Lord Speaker of the House of Lords, United Kingdom Parliament, asks the UK government about its commitment to NTDs.

Below is an excerpt from the Baroness’ speech:

View the meeting.

View the full transcript.

Asked By Baroness Hayman

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what international support they expect to receive for the new Department for International Development initiative to combat neglected tropical diseases announced on 21 January.

Baroness Northover : The Government have just announced a fivefold increase in support for neglected tropical diseases. This will help to protect more than 140 million people worldwide. It will strengthen the UK’s partnerships with the World Health Organisation, foundations such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Carter Center, other donors, pharmaceutical companies that are making drug donations, the endemic countries and non-governmental organisations.

Baroness Hayman : I welcome that very positive response from the Minister and the Government’s initiative in this field. I should declare a non-financial interest as a trustee of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, which works to develop new vaccines for diseases such as human hook worm and on mass drug administration programmes.

Does the Minister agree that diseases such as guinea worm, river blindness and schistosomiasis not only devastate the health, education and employment prospects of hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest people but impede progress towards the achievement of the millennium development goals? Given that eradication is a real possibility and that intervention is so cost-effective, will the Government do all they can to ensure that generous donors, such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and other countries continue their efforts so that we can rid the world of these truly awful diseases? » Read more: Baroness Helene Hayman speaks at the House of Lords on NTDs

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How the outhouse saved the South and what it can do for the world’s bottom billion

January 26th, 2012 by Amy Alabaster 1 comment »

Last century, the invention of the outhouse helped to eliminate hookworm and other parasites in the United States. Now new research shows that the lowly latrine could be a powerful tool in controlling these diseases, which remain widespread among the world’s poorest people.

It’s pretty simple. Whether people use it or just have access to it, the latrine could help save hundreds of millions of people from disabling disease. So concludes researchers from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, who found that in study sites, latrines halved the risk of infection from three common intestinal parasites- hookworm, roundworm and whipworm. Their research was published earlier this week in PLoS Medicine.

Hookworm, roundworm and whipworm- known collectively as the soil-transmitted helminthes or STH’s- are transferred from person to person through contact with feces-contaminated soil. It makes sense then that latrines or toilets would have a major impact on reducing transmission. This isn’t exactly a new idea. Today STH’s are most common in developing countries where there is limited access to clean water and basic sanitation. It wasn’t that long ago though that STH’s were a major problem here in the US, especially in the American South. It was the invention of the outhouse, in combination with anti-helminthes treatments, that helped eradicate these diseases. » Read more: How the outhouse saved the South and what it can do for the world’s bottom billion

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Posted in hookworm, NTDs, WASH

UK announces five-fold increase in funding for NTDs

January 23rd, 2012 by Caitlin Garlow No comments »

Over the weekend, Britain’s Department for International Development (DFID) announced a five-fold increase in their aid for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).  Between 2011 and 2015, they will increase their support for NTDs to £245 million.

According to Stephen O’Brien, the International Development Minister, this increase in funding will enable Britain to protect and treat 140 million people in the developing world by providing more than four treatments every second for the next four years.

He said, “British support will take the neglected out of neglected tropical diseases and will not just save lives – but transform lives. By preventing the spread of these diseases and treating their victims, we will enable them to go to school and work so that they can help themselves out of poverty and eventually no longer rely on aid.”

The increased aid will be focused on eliminating lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis), onchocerciasis (trachoma) and schistosomiasis (snail fever), in addition to Guinea worm.

DFID’s announcement comes in advance of the Gates Foundation conference on January 30, 2012 in London, which will bring together governments, NGOs and the private sector to announce new and renew existing commitments to NTD prevention and treatment.

This is great news for the NTD community as a whole and in particular for The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI), two of the Global Network’s founding partners that will now receive additional funding.  Raising awareness about the need for this type of funding is why we launched our new END7 campaign, so we’re hopeful that many other public and private partners will follow Britain’s lead in the coming months.

Read more about the announcement in their press release here.

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Posted in elephantiasis, lymphatic filariasis, NTDs, Onchocerciasis, Trachoma, UK government

TDR-TB and the NTDS

January 19th, 2012 by admin No comments »

By: Alanna Shaikh

Last week, the existence of a new form of TB hit the media. This new type, currently called totally drug resistant tuberculosis, or TDR-TB, is exactly what it sounds like. Doctors have not yet been able to identify a treatment for this TB that will work. As far as we can tell, it is resistant to all existing regimens. The WHO is looking into it, but this is a bad, bad, development for global health.

Mycobacterium tuberculosis

So what does this have to do with neglected tropical diseases (NTDs)?

Well, many NTDs are bacterial, which means they are treated with antibiotics, just like the treatment for TB. This means that they’re as much at risk for antibacterial resistance as TB is. In addition, TB has benefited from research, and the development of newer drugs. There has been less research into finding new treatments for NTDs. » Read more: TDR-TB and the NTDS

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Posted in NTDs