Tag Archives: deworming

Making Progress against NTDs in Honduras

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Three to four hours. That’s how long one mother was willing to walk to make sure her child attended the annual vaccination and deworming campaign in the village of Coyalito in San Esteban, Honduras.

This past April was my third trip to Honduras in the last 14 months. On my first two trips, I spent the majority of my time running between government offices and meetings – including attending the launch of the Honduras national integrated plan on neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).  Honduras was the first country* in Latin America and the Caribbean region to launch such a plan – which ensures that the country is tackling all diseases at once – versus one at a time.

This time on my return to Honduras, I saw firsthand how that plan was being put into motion.

And I was amazed.

For a country facing severe challenges in security and violence, Honduras is a leader and innovator when it comes to tackling NTDs.

Three government divisions – the Ministries of Health, Education and Social Development are working together to reach people in even the most remote parts of the country.  They’ve taken charge by developing working groups to tackle issues and problems they notice when bringing the programs to the community.

They’re enthusiastic. They’re driven. And I’m quite positive that they’re going to succeed.

I know this because I traveled over six hours with the Ministry of Health over unpaved and rocky roadways on their visits to various districts.  Distribution was carefully arranged: a health worker used a loud megaphone to call out to members of the community to invite them to visit the vaccine and deworming campaign.  From there, mothers would bring their young children to receive essential vaccines and deworming medicine.

A nurse practitioner told me that bundling healthcare delivery– such as vaccination and deworming – often encourages more families to come. Most parents know about these diseases, especially the intestinal worms.  In Honduras, and many other countries in Latin America and the Caribbean,  there’s a common belief that if children grind their teeth at night, they have parasites. There is a demand for deworming, and mothers came armed with their child’s immunization card and found a space to account for their child’s annual deworming treatment.

The Honduran ministries are also thinking beyond treatment for NTDs to a more comprehensive approach.  These diseases are often spread due to lack of access to clean water and proper sanitation, which is a reality for some of the families in villages like Coyalito.  As a result, the ministries are pushing to incorporate water filters in schools, and other sanitation initiatives which will propel these treatment programs toward long-term success.

At the end of the day, I joined the health team in brief survey to determine attendance of the campaign. We walked around each “manzana” – or block – to knock on people’s homes and ask them if children were dewormed and vaccinated. Health workers talked to them about why it’s important to attend these campaigns and have their children treated.

Among advocacy organizations, it seems that we often divvy up health issues, as if family planning, treatment for NTDs and vaccination are all independent projects.  But, the reality is that often, at the point-of-care level, everything is bundled together. It’s very effective.

Our partners in Honduras want to expand this successful initiative to help many more families. END7 is asking supporters to help fill a funding gap to make sure this medicine reaches Honduran children in 20,061 schools. With your help we can reach 1.4 million school children and protect them harmful parasitic worms, including roundworm, hookworm, and whipworm.

Help us see the end of NTDs in Honduras by making a contribution. Read more about END7’s effort to raise money and support for NTD treatment in Honduras here.

*In March 2013, Brazil launched their integrated national plan, and currently several other countries have draft plans in development.

UNICEF Organizes Hygiene Promotion and Deworming Week in Uzbekistan

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In celebration of the Hygiene Promotion and Deworming Week organized by UNICEF, some 900,000 children between ages 6 and 11 received deworming tablets in the Andijan, Ferghana and Namangan provinces of the eastern Ferghana Valley, Uzbekistan.

During the week, a variety of health promotion activities took place that emphasized the link between proper hand-washing and the prevention of worms and other diseases. In the Ferghana Province, children were enterained by Masqaraboz Tozavoy’, or Mr. Clean, a clown that spoke to the children with hygiene messages in a fun and educational way. He asked them to take his messages home to their families, friends and neighbours. “I would like you to be hand-washing heroes in your school and at home,” he told them.

Below is a video from event in Uzbekistan:

Besides hygiene promotion, activities focused on tackling worm infestations. In 2011, a study jointly conducted by UNICEF and WHO in the Ferghana valley revealed that up to 75 per cent of children living in the region had worms. UNICEF’s support of the week-long intensive campaign allowed for the procurement of 1,000,000 mebendazole tablets, an effective de-worming medicines, as well as hygiene promotion materials for schools.

 

Click here to learn more about the event

The Global Health Burden of Neglected Tropical Diseases

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The World Health Summit will take place next week from October 23-26 in Berlin, Germany. The Global Network’s Managing Director Dr. Neeraj Mistry will be in attendance. To promote the summit and advocate for NTDs, Dr. Mistry authored a blogpost for the ONE Campaign Germany. Find the English version below:

By: Dr. Neeraj Mistry, Managing Director of the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases

Two years ago, out in the farthest reaches of Burundi’s Rutana province, deep in terrain that could have been lush with agriculture, a community rejoiced. Its population had been plagued by river blindness, a disabling and blinding disease which is transmitted through the bite of a black fly. The flies come from the streams and rivers that keep the land fertile, making the water both a blessing and a curse. However, in 2009, Burundi’s ministry of health found this remote community and with the help of global health partners, delivered enough ivermectin to treat everyone in the area. Leonard Medina, the 37-year-old chief of the community, said that people are now returning to work, children are going back to school, and communities broken by genocide, civil war and disease are finally getting the opportunity to rebuild. Without the heavy burden of disease, the land and the people are getting their chance to flourish.

River blindness is in a group of diseases called the neglected tropical diseases or NTDs. Over 1 billion people around the world are affected by NTDs, most of whom live on less than $1.25 per day (US dollars). One in every six people globally has at least one of the seven most common NTDs. That means that every day, half a billion children are forced to go to school feeling tired and malnourished because of a common parasite infection that leads to blood loss and anemia. Millions of people are slowly losing their eyesight because of an infection that turns their eyelashes inwards, scratching their corneas each time they blink. Millions more are left disabled and disfigured by the swollen limbs and genitalia caused by another all too common parasite. These diseases stigmatize, disable and inhibit individuals from being able to care for themselves or their families—all of which promote poverty. Continue reading →

Burundi Beats Back NTDs

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By: Alan Fenwick, Director of the Schistosomaisis Control Initiative and Professor of Tropical Parasitology, Imperial College London

Burundi is a small, heavily populated and desperately poor country in central Africa. Just a few years ago, its people were in the throws of a 12-year civil war, and also plagued by several debilitating neglected tropical diseases, which are a group of infections that disable, debilitate and stigmatize those affected.

In 2007, the philanthropic organization Geneva Global agreed to fund the treatment of parasites in Burundi and brought together several partners to assist Burundi’s Ministry of Health. The Global Network for Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI, Imperial College) and CBM work in partnership to provide technical guidance for Burundi’s National NTD Control Program and National Program for Onchocerciasis Control programs.

Over a period of four years, interventions to protect people against river blindness, and treatment for those infected with schistosomiasis and intestinal worms were delivered annually through schools and communities. With the help of local people and teachers, over 31 million safe and effective treatments were delivered to school children throughout Burundi.

The table above displays number of treatments distributed in Burundi over the course of four years.

As a result, river blindness was eliminated and the quality of life for all children in Burundi has improved:

  • Schistosomiasis prevalence was reduced from 12.7 percent to 1.7 percent
  • Anemia prevalence fell from 25 percent to below 10 percent
  • Worm prevalence and intensities were significantly reduced

The school wide deworming will continue for several more years to ensure children are adequately nourished to complete their primary education, allowing for a break in the cycle of poverty. Such interventions are highly cost effective as well. The cost of delivering over 31 million treatments was less than $10 million – an extremely cost effective way to improve the health of children and to get them back in school!

Be a part of the NTD movement today and visit the Global Network’s Get Involved page to combat neglected tropical diseases.