On May 16, 2011, the Center for Global Development hosted an event for Michael Kremer and Sarah Baird to present data on their long-term follow-up research study called “Worms at Work: Long-run Impacts of Child Deworming in Kenya.” Other authors on the paper include Joan Hamory Hicks and Edward Miguel). This paper concludes that deworming in Kenyan schools can show significant, long-term gain in employment and earnings and among dewormed children. Continue reading
Picture taken by THEMBA MASEKO
42 year old Jimmy Mgqwashu from Bluegum View, South Africa has been living in agony for over 25 years after his left leg became infected with elephantiasis in 1985. According to Mgqwashu, he was on a trip to fetch wood in nearby mountains when a small cut from loose barbed wire along the way began to swell a few days later. At first, it just appeared to be a bad cut so he was prescribed an anodyne. According to Mgqwashu, not long after he went to the clinic, his leg grew bigger. Unfortunately, the clinic nearby was not prepared to treat his illness. He says:
[i]n 1987 I went to Paul Kruger Hospital in Rustenburg to get some help. The doctors told me that I had elephantiasis and they couldn’t treat this condition because it needed a specialist.
Mgqwashu’s experience is not singular. Sadly, millions of people around the world with,for example, poor access to healthcare, low-incomes, or who live in rural, hard to access settings have a difficult time acquiring live saving health services to prevent and treat ailments.
Mgqwashu explains that “[his] leg is really heavy and [that he] can barely walk. [Since the infection has grown, his] future has been bleak since then.” These sentiments represent another issue many people like Jimmy face after falling ill; their work productivity drops significantly which has a devastating impact on their disposable income and social participation in the community. One topic that isn’t discussed enough is the impact of elephantiasis on the afflicted man or woman’s sexual health and wellness. Mgqwachu points out that “[he doesn’t] even have a wife and all the women run away because they think that [he] might leave them with this disease. [He is] a man and [he] needs to satisfy [his] libido.” Because acute elephatiasis, clincally referred to as lymphatic filariasis, is an inflammation of the skin, lymph nodes and lymphatic vessels. According to WHO
When lymphatic filariasis develops into chronic conditions, it leads to lymphoedema (tissue swelling) or elephantiasis (skin/tissue thickening) of limbs and hydrocele (fluid accumulation). Involvement of breasts and genital organs is common. Such body deformities lead to social stigma, as well as financial hardship from loss of income and increased medical expenses. The socioeconomic burdens of isolation and poverty are immense.
Thankfully, the CEO of Pholosong Hospital, Sfiso Maseko, picked up Mgqwashu’s story and assures him that “there is a treatment for this condition.” He encourages Mgqwashu to “bring the papers he was given including the file number so that [he] can provide treatment for his leg.”
Yesterday, New York Times writer Thomas Fuller, wrote a piece about the injurious side of Thai food delicacies.
Taken from NYT article featured here
The raw fish that is so avidly consumed in the stilt houses that sit among rice paddies and wetlands of the country’s northern provinces contain parasites that can accumulate in the liver and lead to a deadly cancer. Known as bile duct cancer
Bile duct cancer is prevalent in Thailand and represents the majority of the nearly 70 liver cancer deaths a day in Thailand. Dr. Banchob Sripa, the head of the tropical disease research laboratory at nearby Khon Kaen University, says that “it’s the most deadly and persistent cancer in the region.”
Concurrently, Dr. Peter Hotez, President of Sabin Vaccine Institute, characterizes liver flukes as “one of the most important infectious causes of cancer that no one has ever heard of.” Dr. Hotez also explains that
even though Thailand is a middle-class country, there are still pockets of intense poverty — and with that poverty come high rates of neglected tropical diseases. We’ve got the technology to make vaccines. But we don’t have the funding.
Thus, like several of the NTDs we focus on, these parasites get less attention because they rarely afflict wealthy urban populations.
Child infected with a STH.
Washington, D.C. – A new report released today by the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, an initiative of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, highlights theimpact that a small group of neglected diseases are having on children in the Americas and presents concrete policy recommendations that can lead to significant progress in achieving several Millennium Development Goals in the Americas by 2015.
Entitled A Call to Action: Addressing Soil-transmitted Helminths in Latin America and the Caribbean, the report was developed in partnership with the Pan American Health Organization and the Inter-American Development Bank. The findings shed light on the health and economic toll imposed on at-risk populations by three types of parasitic intestinal worms, known collectively as soil-transmitted helminths (STH).
At least 46 million children in the Americas, or nearly 20% in the region, are at risk of becoming infected by these parasites. Infection often leads to chronic malnutrition, impairment of physical and cognitive development, and traps vulnerable populations in a cycle of poverty.
