All posts by Kathryn McGrath

END7 Funds NTD Projects Around the World

Africa, de-worming, elephantiasis, END7, Global Development, Global Health, hookworm, lymphatic filariasis, MDA, NTDs, parasites, Sabin Vaccine Institute, schistosomiasis, Soil Transmitted Helminths (STH), Student Advocacy, WASH, Water and Sanitation

This spring, we awarded nearly $400,000 in new grants for neglected tropical disease (NTD) control and elimination activities in 2016.

This funding is made possible by generous donations to END7, an international advocacy campaign that seeks to raise the awareness and funding necessary to control and eliminate the seven most common NTDs. The campaign is managed by the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases and 100% of donations to the END7 campaign go straight to NTD programs. Donations to Sabin Foundation Europe, a partner of the U.S.-based Sabin Vaccine Institute and the Global Network also helped make these grants possible.

The grants will make a significant impact in supporting integrated NTD programs in six countries. All projects are coordinated with Ministries of Health and/or the World Health Organization in each country. Many of the projects include mass drug administration (MDA) for the most common NTDs and training of health care workers. These projects are expected to benefit nearly six million individuals at risk from NTDs and train tens of thousands of health workers and volunteers to lead the NTD control and elimination effort into the future.

Awarded to existing efforts that faced a funding gap, these projects will have a lasting impact on improving and expanding existing programs to reach ambitious NTD control and elimination goals in Africa, Asia and Latin America – the regions with the largest NTD burden:

Nigeria
 $50,000 to support integrated MDA for seven NTDs, administered by Sightsavers with the support of the Federal and Kebbi State Ministries of Health. Nearly 5.9 million people will receive donated medicine in Kebbi state, in northwest Nigeria, where all seven NTDs are widespread. Sightsavers will continue their successful MDA in the region and expand to new areas.

Somalia
 $66,200 to support the first integrated MDA in five regions of southwestern Somalia by the new NTD Program of the Ministry of Health and Human Services. The MDA will target schistosomiasis (snail fever), ascariasis (roundworm), hookworm and trichuriasis (whipworm) among school-age children and adults in areas of high prevalence. The NTD Programme was established in 2015; success this year will help scale up the delivery of donated medicine to the rest of the country.

Cote d’Ivoire
 $28,789 to support water, sanitation and hygiene education to prevent NTDs in Cote d’Ivoire, administered by Helen Keller International. More than 7,000 health workers, school teachers and community health volunteers will be trained to reach more than 2.5 million people.

Guyana
 $111,146 to support MDA to eliminate lymphatic filariasis in the most populous region of the country, administered by the Pan American Health Organization and the Ministry of Public Health. Guyana is on track to eliminate lymphatic filariasis (also known as elephantiasis) by 2020. These funds were raised for END7 by the Sabin City Group in London.

India
 $60,546 to assist a local NGO, Churches Auxiliary for Social Action (CASA), to expand their successful efforts to treat and prevent lymphatic filariasis to West Bengal. This grant will enable CASA to train community members to manage the swelling and disability that often results from later stages of lymphatic filariasis. Each infected patient will receive a hygiene kit with soap, a towel and antifungal ointment and be shown how to care for themselves to reduce swelling. CASA will also promote the government’s annual MDA targeting 500,000 people for lymphatic filariasis treatment in West Bengal.

Myanmar
 $75,645 to assist the Department of Public Health to determine where MDA for lymphatic filariasis has succeeded and can be concluded. Nine districts with a population of nearly 7 million have already conducted more than five rounds of MDA for lymphatic filariasis. Officials will determine whether transmission has been interrupted.

The Global Network team reviewed 37 proposals from a range of partners tackling NTDs around the world and selected projects with the potential to have the most lasting impact, leverage further investment and bolster country-led efforts to eliminate NTDs.

To date the Global Network has awarded more than US$1 million in grants to 19 partners. From individual donors contributing $5 a month to student groups raising $10,000 over the course of a school year, the END7 campaign has mobilized a diverse and growing community of supporters from countries around the world dedicated to supporting the fight against NTDs. Together, these contributions are moving the NTD elimination effort forward by helping communities set up treatment programs they can run themselves. END7 supporters fill funding gaps in successful NTD treatment programs, highlighting the tremendous impact of this inexpensive treatment and the power of partnership in the fight against NTDs.

Nobel Prize Awarded to Scientists Who Discovered NTD Medicine

elephantiasis, lymphatic filariasis, NTDs, Onchocerciasis, River blindness,
LF-Nobel-Blog

Rabi, who suffers from LF, and his children, Sanjay and Mamali, in Ganjam District, Odisha, India. Photo: Naveen Pun / Global Network for NTDs

Today the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded to two scientists for the discovery of a drug that treats two common neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).

William Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura were honored for their work developing a new class of anti-parasitic drugs. The prize was shared with Tu Youyou for her discovery of a new malaria drug. The Nobel committee noted, “The global impact of their discoveries and the resulting benefit to mankind are immeasurable.”

Ōmura isolated a promising soil bacteria he found in a Japanese golf course, from which William C. Campbell discovered a component that proved remarkably effective against parasites. The component, named Avermectin, was subsequently chemically modified to be even more effective and called Ivermectin.

Her grand-daughter Adamsay Turay, 8, helps Lucy Bangura, walk in the town of Masongbo, Sierra Leone on Thursday July 12, 2012.

Her grand-daughter Adamsay Turay, 8, helps Lucy Bangura walk in the town of Masongbo, Sierra Leone on Thursday July 12, 2012. Photo: Oliver Asselin / Global Network for NTDs

Great progress has been made through annual mass treatment with the drug. Last year, more than 270 million treatments were donated to people in impoverished communities to treat onchocerciasis (also known as river blindness) and lymphatic filariasis (or elephantiasis). Some areas are now close to interrupting transmission and eliminating these two devastating NTDs which lead to blindness and debilitating swelling.

We celebrate the scientific discovery that made this possible and honor and applaud the efforts of all those who contribute to the fight against NTDs — from the companies that donate the medicine and the community volunteers who distribute it to the donors who sustain these programs.

After the discovery of the bacterial compound, it took decades to mass produce and secure the donation of Ivermectin. But in the next five years we can protect millions from onchocerciasis and eliminate lymphatic filariasis around the world by ensuring those in need have access to this Nobel Prize-winning drug.

TAKE ACTION: Please donate now to help us raise awareness, funding and political commitments to make sure NTD medications reach those in need.

3rd Progress Report on The London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases Released

Global Health, NTDs, poverty, ,

Uniting to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases released its third progress report on The London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases on June 25, 2015. Read the full executive summary and report. 

From the Executive Summary

In the course of human history, few public health efforts can match the scale and ambition of the endeavor to rid the world of 10 Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). These efforts have accelerated over the last three years, as a diverse group of players have come together in one of the largest ever public-private partnerships to deliver the funding, drugs, and technical assistance required.

The good news is that we are beginning to see positive results from this collaboration: a growing number of endemic countries are achieving elimination goals, more people are being reached, and there is increasing national ownership of NTD programs. The political and economic gains from NTD investments make a compelling case for further investment both domestically and from donors.

Nonetheless there are challenges that threaten our ability to meet the WHO NTD Roadmap targets. Currently the supply of donated drugs exceeds our ability to reach communities and more needs to be done to scale up programs. If, as a global consortium of partners, we cannot marshal the resources required to deliver donated drugs to the communities in need, more than a billion people will remain at-risk of harm by NTDs. We need to redouble our efforts.

This third report on progress since the 2012 London Declaration on NTDs highlights important accomplishments and learnings, and identifies areas that warrant greater attention. Five principal themes have emerged within the report:

  1. Control and elimination of NTDs provide one of the strongest returns on investment in public health
  2. Leadership among endemic countries has shown a substantial increase
  3. The largest public health drug donation program in the world continues to grow
  4. Coverage is increasing, but the pace is too slow to meet key milestones
  5. National NTD programs are achieving elimination goals

 

As noted in the 2015 G7 Summit communique, “2015 is a milestone year for international cooperation and sustainable development issues”—and, the fight against NTDs is no different. We have the opportunity now, together, to reach many of the goals laid out in the WHO roadmap on NTDs and position the future elimination of these 10 NTDs as an achievable objective for this generation. Those living in extreme poverty around the world are counting on our help. Let’s not keeping them waiting.

Read the full executive summary and report.