Community Drug Distributors in Sierra Leone. Photo credit: Hellen Keller International

Sierra Leone’s first ever school-based mass drug administration (MDA) for schistosomiasis and hookworm was conducted in 2009. Now, a recently published report concludes that the MDA was a success, reducing both the prevalence and the severity of diseases that keeps kids from growing and learning to their fullest potential.

The article states that disease mapping and surveillance, carried out in 2008 and 2009, showed schistosome worms in up to 95% of children in endemic areas of Sierra Leone. Despite that statistic, no schistosomiasis control activities had taken place in the country prior to 2009.

However, MDAs for the hookworm and other soil-transmitted helminthes (STHs) began in 2004. In 2009 the National Neglected Tropical Diseases Control Program piloted a schistosomiasis MDA in combination with STH treatment in endemic districts. Researchers* collected data from 15 schools in 6  districts before and 6 months after the 2009 MDA. They found that schistosome and hookworm infections were significantly reduced, by 45% and 72% respectively. They also discovered that drug treatment helped to cut heavy schistosome infections by almost 75%, which is expected to make a meaningful impact on the severity of disease symptoms in the children.

After the first MDA, the National NTD Control Program in Sierra Leone scaled up schistomiasis control to include all school-age children and at risk adults in endemic districts. The researchers report that communities understand the need for and are supportive of the MDAs, and as past research has shown, successful MDA programs have a beneficial effect on health, growth and school achievement.

*The study was carried out by researchers from Helen Keller International, the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, the Sierra Leone National NTD Control Program and Njala University, and funding was provided by USAID and UNICEF.

By Simon Bush, Director of Neglected Tropical Diseases at Sightsavers

In 1947 when Sightsavers’ founder, Sir John Wilson, coined the phrase river blindness to describe the almost unpronounceable disease onchocerciasis, rife amongst Africa’s river-side communities, there was little choice for those living in areas where what we now call a neglected tropical disease (NTD) was endemic.  Fear of being infected by the bite of the simulim fly, which was breeding in the rivers’ fast flowing waters and then going blind meant that villages were abandoned and with them, the rich fertile lands and people’s livelihoods.

Today, although the World Health Organization estimates that 120 million people¹ are at risk of river blindness, there is hope.

For the last 25 years, drug distribution programmes to treat river blindness have been established across most endemic countries, and community-based distribution systems are used to ensure people receive an annual dose of ‘Mectizan’® (ivermectin)*. The drugs are donated by global pharmaceutical company Merck & Co. Inc. (known as MSD in the UK), and organizations like Sightsavers support the distribution.

However the real hope comes through evidence from the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC), our key partner in fighting river blindness. It has found that when taken once or twice a year for 15 to 17 years ‘Mectizan’® can help control this debilitating NTD. This, at last, puts the end in sight!  » Read more: Can we rid Africa of a blinding neglected tropical disease?

This morning leaders from 13 pharmaceutical companies, governments of the United States, United Kingdom and United Arab Emirates, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the World Bank and other global health organizations gathered at the “London Declaration” on NTDs meeting to announce their support for eliminating 10 NTDs by 2020.

The announcement is big. In the largest coordinated effort to date, the group announced that they will provide hundreds of millions of dollars to support R&D efforts and strengthen drug distribution and implementation programs.

Today’s event goes beyond an announcement about drug and money donations. Today NTDs are in the spotlight. Stakeholders from around the world are talking about the London Declaration and NTDs through multiple traditional and social media channels. Our very own Peter Hotez, M.D., Ph.D., president of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, published an op-ed this morning in the Huffington Post. Global Health journalist Sarah Boseley also wrote an article about the event for The Guardian.

Using hashtags like #NTDs and #LondonDeclaration, Twitter users posted more than 350 tweets in just an hour and half. The END7 campaign was a large part of the conversation, tweeting live from the event. » Read more: NTDs take spotlight at “London Declaration” meeting