Tag Archives: education

Alyssa Milano, Tonic.com, and the Global Network Unite Against Lymphatic Filariasis!

Alyssa Milano, lymphatic filariasis, Tonic Campaign, , , , ,

Photo courtesy of IMA World Health.

LF, also known as elephantiasis, affects 120 million people worldwide and this week (April 19-26), we are proud to partner with actress and Global Network Ambassador Alyssa Milano and Tonic.com – an online platform to educate and engage consumers around positive actions – on a social-media driven campaign to raise $75,000 to keep a lymphatic filariasis (LF) program alive in the Indian state of Orissa.

IMA World Health and the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have partnered with the

google images

Indian n.g.o CASA on a lymphatic filariasis program in Orissa to care for 23,000 LF patients and work to identify new cases of the disease. The program serves to provide emotional support, home care, and health education to LF patients and their families. These health and education programs allow LF patients to get back on their feet and be empowered to return to work and be productive citizens, contributing to their families and communities.


This program needs $75,000 to continue. The Global Network, Alyssa Milano, and Tonic.com are determined to End the Neglect and raise those funds – now. Together we make a BIG difference.

Will you join our cause? This is how you can help us meet our goal of $75,000:

  • Re-tweet us! Follow us: , ,
  • “Like” our cause on
  • Visit Tonic.com
  • Follow our stories here at End the Neglect and at Alyssa Milano’s blog
  • Donate to the project http://bit.ly/gM3Zyn
  • SPREAD THE WORD!

Contact us at with any questions or comments.

Join us to End the Neglect!

Click HERE to donate now.


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Give me a sample, wash your hands, and take this pill.

Commentary, healthcare, NGOs, NTDs, , ,

By: Valerie Fitton-Kane

When you go to the doctor for a check-up, do you go just to get your blood pressure checked?  Probably not.  More than likely, your doctor checks your blood pressure, listens to your heart, takes a blood sample, and asks you lots of questions about your physical and mental symptoms.  You talk to him or her about that funny rash you had last week, and you ask for a refill on your birth control or allergy medication.  This is integrated healthcare.  Our doctors never just test for or treat one disease when they see you.  They test you for anything and everything … and they cover off contraception and other preventative care while they’re at it.

Meanwhile, our public health experts and government officials are providing all sorts of services that, while we don’t often think of them in terms of health, they do help to keep us healthy.  For example, they ensure clean, uncontaminated water comes out of your kitchen faucet every morning.  And they’re helping to drill it into your head that you need to wash your hands when you finish in the bathroom … and darn it, you better wash them correctly.

In developing countries, there aren’t always doctors and nurses, public health experts, or strong governments to provide all of these services.  Quite often, there are non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that specialize in delivering a few key services such as the treatment of eye diseases or the building of wells to provide clean water.  Some organizations, such as CARE or Save the Children, have expanded to provide a range of different services, but quite often it takes many government and non-government groups with various specialties to deliver all the services that you and I are used to.  And even then, service delivery is often pretty uneven because most of the organizations that deliver these services have to ask for donations from people like us in order to pay for the work they do.

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Leprosy, Possibly the Most Annoying NTD

Commentary, Global Health, grassroots, MDA, NTDs, opinion, , , ,

By: Alanna Shaikh

Here’s the thing about leprosy. It’s totally, completely, absolutely treatable; World Health Organization (WHO) provides free drugs to make treatment even easier. Leprosy progresses slowly – like 20 years slowly and it is not infectious. So what the heck? Why can’t we just eliminate leprosy already? Why do people still get this disease? Why does it go untreated long enough that we still see ?

WHO pronounced the elimination of leprosy as no longer a public health threat, in 2000. That means that the disease has a prevalence of less than one case per 10,000 people[1], largely because multi-drug therapy for leprosy is really effective. (And, as I previously mentioned, free as the result of donations from Novartis and the Novartis Foundation for Sustainable Development.)

But “not a public health threat” doesn’t mean “gone”. The 2008 disease burden for leprosy was 213,086 cases. Not a big number, I admit, but not zero. I want zero. Why can’t we have zero?

The reasons we are not at zero are, of course, depressingly familiar.  Though the drugs to treat leprosy are free, transportation and administration costs are not. You need a functional health system to diagnose leprosy, start patients on treatment, and make sure that they are able to finish their treatment.

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Deworming Day in Cambodia aims to educate, treat & prevent

Global Health, NTDs, poverty, , , , , , , ,

Reposted with permission from the ONE Campaign’s blog

Kim Koporc from Children Without Worms (CWW) writes about an illness that affects children all over the world, including Africa: intestinal worms.

Photo Credit: Children without Worms

When I visited Cambodia with Johnson & Johnson for a deworming day at Poek Ho (waterfall) school in Kandal Province, I was struck by the sheer number of students who lined up to receive mebendazole. These children showed up to receive treatment for intestinal parasites with mebendazole donated by Johnson & Johnson. They also received a meal, which for some was likely the only meal they received that day.

Photo Credit: Children without Worms

These children were at particular risk of infection with intestinal worms because worms thrive in the warm climate. The lack of access to sanitation facilities in Cambodia doesn’t help much, either. In America, it is hard for us to imagine that more than 1.2 billion people living in developing countries are infected with intestinal worms. Worms are most prevalent in children between the ages of 6 to 14 and can lead to malnutrition, robbing them of the energy they need to learn and grow.

Schools provide CWW and our partners with a means to distribute the mebendazole to the children who need it, and schools also provide a platform to teach STH prevention by promoting healthy behavior within the classroom. Helen Keller International, our partners in Cambodia, works to integrate deworming prevention and hygiene into school programs and curriculum.

Photo Credit: Children without Worms

Even though schools provide a platform for reaching children in Cambodia, many of the poorest children do not have the resources and ability to attend school, and therefore, are left out of these deworming days. Strategies need to be developed to target this vulnerable population, such as inviting non-enrolled children to attend on “deworming day” and working with community leaders to identify and treat these children.

Treatment, hygiene education and access to sanitation and clean water are all components needed to bring STH infection under control, and together, governments, NGOs and other groups can come up with better solutions to reach this vulnerable population and find ways to prevent and treat intestinal worms.

There are many health challenges that children face throughout the world. But for intestinal worms, there is a solution that greatly improves a child’s capacity to learn and grow. A dose of medication, along with hygiene education and access to sanitation, are vital steps forward in improving a child’s life.

Read more about CWW’s work to distribute mebendazole from Johnson & Johnson to school age children as part of the Cambodia’s national deworming program.