Posts Tagged ‘Global Health’

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Vaccine fever

November 9th, 2011

By: Charles Ebikeme

Last month, the results of the largest malaria study of its kind was published in the New England Journal of Medicine, spelling out the possibility of new hope for fighting a disease that accounts for 800,000 lives lost on a yearly basis – most of them children under the age of 5. This sparked a promise of hope in controlling a disease that causes so much human death and suffering. But it is by no means the last word. As we all take a step back from the ground-breaking news of the most advanced new malaria vaccine in the field so far – the pros and cons, drawbacks and potential of the RTS,S vaccine is being debated. Those of us interested in NTDs are drawn to the next logical question: how far along are we in vaccine development for NTDs?

With NTDs a heady mix of infections caused by bacterial and parasitic agents, vaccine development for many of the NTDs will have to overcome much of the same problems of the malaria vaccine – both technically and clinically.

The benefit of a vaccine is clear for all to see, and may be complemented with drug administrations as part of a total strategy to eliminate or eradicate many of these diseases. But despite the lack of research and development that plagues the NTDs, there is some progress at hand – or, at least, there is a realization and drive for developing more ‘antipoverty’ vaccines.

Of all the NTDs on the list, only rabies is vaccine-preventable with Buruli ulcer coming in a far second (the current Bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine appears to offer some short-term protection). A vaccine for hookworm, the almost vampiric parasite that ingests enough blood to cause anaemia, is in development. Schistosomiasis, arguably the most important human helminth infection in terms of mortality, has one antigen vaccine in clinical trials and a number in preclinical studies. The situation is promising – many have suggested that schistosomiasis could be the next disease to be ‘consigned to history’ by the next time the MDGs have to be rewritten. We wait in hope. » Read more: Vaccine fever

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India’s heavy burden of NTDs

November 1st, 2011

Sabin Vaccine President Dr. Peter Hotez recently co-authored a journal article reporting the high burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) experienced in India and South Asia. Published in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, the article entitled “A Disproportionate Burden of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) found in India and South Asia” discusses the impact of this group of debilitating and disabling diseases on the most vulnerable populations within India and South Asia. Dr. Hotez spoke with The Hindu, a daily newspaper circulated in India, about the state of NTDs in the region. Below are highlights from their discussion:

  • 12 to 17 percent of all intestinal worm infections globally occurred in India and were often associated with hookworm, whipworm and the Ascaris worm.
  • Economic loss attributed to NTDs is nearly $1 billion per year due to lymphatic filariasis alone.
  • There is hope – recent successes include the deworming of 17 million school children in the state of Bihar occurring early this spring.
  • Future successes can be achieved via public-private partnerships, coordination between government and private NTD treatment providers, and international collaboration among countries (a partnership between India, Bangladesh and Nepal in efforts to control leishmaniasis that occurs heavily on shared borders between these nations, for example).

Click here to read the entire article in The Hindu.

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USAID Awards New Flagship Project “Envision” for Neglected Tropical Diseases

October 26th, 2011

In 2006, USAID launched its first-ever integrated program to target the control and elimination of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Managed by RTI International, the NTD Control Program is one of the first global efforts to integrate existing disease-specific treatment programs for the control and elimination of seven NTDs. Its five years proven track record has demonstrated that such programs can be successfully scaled up to achieve national-scale coverage of all at-risk individuals, an approach that is leading to the successful control and elimination of the targeted diseases.

Since the launch of USAID’s NTD Control Program in 2006, more than 447 million NTD treatments have been provided to more than 82 million people. This has been made possible through the donation of many of the required drugs needed to treat infected populations. More than $2.8 billion of medicines have been donated over the past five years through the pharmaceutical donation programs of GSK, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., Inc., and Pfizer to the countries in which USAID is supporting implementation of NTD control.

To add to this success, USAID’s Bureau for Global Health awarded Envision (the follow-on to the NTD Control Program) on September 26, 2011, to RTI. Envision is a five-year Cooperative Agreement, with a $240 million ceiling, that covers the period of October 1, 2011 to September 29, 2016. For the Envision project, RTI has partnered with CBM, Helen Keller International, IMA World Health, Sightsavers International, The Carter Center, Tulane University, and World Vision.

Under Envision, NTD control and elimination will continue to be supported by USAID and will expand in priority countries to further the development of evidence-based policies and standards globally. Envision will assist USAID and the Bureau for Global Health in supporting NTD-endemic countries to scale up control efforts to reduce the burden of the big seven NTDs.

Stayed tuned to End the Neglect, as we will feature more about this exciting new development at USAID.

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First Anniversary Update of World Health Organization’s NTD Report

October 26th, 2011

Photo credit: World Health Organization

It’s been a year since the World Health Organization (WHO) released the first comprehensive report on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). The Global Network celebrated the launch of this report with a reception this time last year and we still remember the excitement surrounding this important release when it was first announced.  In honor of this anniversary, WHO released an updated version of the report, which can be downloaded here. Below are remarks from WHO’s General Director Margaret Chan on the updated version of the report:

“It is a year to the day since the World Health Organization (WHO) published its first report on neglected tropical diseases.

Almost always out of sight and rarely in news headlines, neglected tropical diseases are found exclusively among poor populations in deprived rural communities. They cause misery and disability, sometimes life-long, to hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

Working to overcome the global impact of neglected tropical diseases, launched by WHO on 14 October 2010, provides evidence that existing safe, simple and effective interventions, implemented during the past seven years, are improving the health and quality of life of populations in 149 countries where many of the 17 diseases* occur. Approximately 90% of their burden can be treated with medicines administered only once or twice a year.” Click here to continue reading.

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