Posts Tagged ‘LF’

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Footage from the 6th Meeting of the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis

December 21st, 2010

As we mentioned, the 6th Meeting of the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (GAELF) met from June 1 – June 3, 2010 and focused on developing strategies for lymphatic filariasis (LF) elimination for the next 10 years. Working with public and private partners, GAELF mobilizes political, financial, and technical resources to achieve LF elimination. Within this past decade, The Global Program has already established interventions to address LF in 51 of the 80 endemic countries. The 6th meeting held this past June focused on new strategies for elimination for the next decade. GAELF recently posted footage from the three day meeting, which can be viewed here.

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Elimination of lymphatic filariasis: do we have the drugs to complete the job?

December 20th, 2010

2020 is the deadline that the WHO Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (GPELF) set to eliminate lymphatic filariasis (LF). Currently LF is treated through mass drug administration (MDA) – which is administering drugs to an entire population to treat a diseases -  using diethylcarbamazine or ivermectin monotherapy, or either drug in combination with albendazole. However, over the past five years of MDA, transmission of LF has yet to be interrupted. Other issues that have arisen include development of adverse health effects (specifically the onset of Loa loa) associated with consumption of the current drugs used for treatment. Moses J. Bockarie and Rinki M. Deb of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine recently published an article reviewing the current state of LF elimination. Read the full article here.

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Impact of NTDs on Women

November 10th, 2010

By: Alanna Shaikh

One of the really interesting things about studying neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) is that they’re not all the same. NTDs aren’t a single health problem; they don’t even have much in common with each other. They share certain social qualities in terms of lack of public response and geographic distribution, but they’re very different medically.

That means that there is no overall typical gender impact of NTDs. Each of the neglected tropical diseases has its own effect on human health. If you managed to quantify all the kinds of damage done by NTDs, and then weigh the impact on women and men, you might find that women suffer more, but it’s a very complex situation. In practice, some NTDs hit men harder, some women.  Pretty much all of them hit children hardest. Today I am writing about women. In a future post, I’ll write about men.

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Posted in Africa, Global Health, hookworm, Maternal Health, NTDs

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Reading List 10/25/2010

October 25th, 2010

New list of reads this morning for your reading pleasure! Today we’re reading about the findings in a new study that suggests vaccines for elephantiasis may actually be spreading the disease, free surgery given out to 4,000 patients in Jigawa state in Nigeria, and we’ve also compiled several news articles on the current cholera outbreak in Haiti.

Vaccines could make elephantiasis spread more easily, Yahoo News
4,000 to receive free eye treatment in Jigawa, Peoples Daily
Cholera Toll Tops 250 in Haiti , Betsy McKay, Wall Street Journal
In Haiti, Capital Braces for a Cholera Outbreak, Deborah Sontag, The New York Times
Cholera outbreak threatens Haiti’s capital, The Washington Post

Articles on the Cholera outbreak with comments from Dr. Peter Hotez, President of the Sabin Vaccine Institute:

Officials Race To Contain Cholera Outbreak In Haiti, Jon Hamilton, NPR
Haiti Cholera Cases Expected to Rise, Lara Salahi, ABC News
The Haiti Cholera Outbreak: What Happens Next?, The Atlantic

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Posted in Africa, Global Health, Haiti, NTDs, Public Health, reading list

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