27 October 2006

Health Coalition Targets Diseases Affecting More than 1 Billion

Coordinated campaign aims to provide drug treatment for tropical diseases

 

A jar containing Guinea worms. Guinea worm disease is prevalent over much of sub-Saharan Africa. (© AP Images)

Washington -- An international coalition of health agencies, advocacy groups and pharmaceutical companies is launching a campaign to provide drug treatment for tropical diseases that afflict more than 1 billion people.

The World Health Organization (WHO), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation are among the members of the coalition, which involves more than 25 partner organizations, according to the WHO press release October 26.

The coalition proposes to fight a set of diseases known collectively as helminthiasis, which are caused by the presence of worms in the body. The approach calls for preventive use of drugs against a broad range of worm infections, combining treatment regimens for four common diseases. They are river blindness (onchocerciasis), elephantiasis (lymphatic filariasis), schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis.

“In the same way as we protect people against a number of vaccine-preventable diseases throughout their lives,” said Dr. Lorenzo Savioli, director of WHO’s Department for the Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases, “the regular and coordinated use of a few drugs can protect people against worm-induced disease, improving children’s performance at school and the economic productivity of adults.”

The campaign is outlined in a newly published manual, Preventive Chemotherapy in Human Helminthiasis, which provides guidance on how and when the drugs should be administered. The effort is made possible by the donation of drugs by major pharmaceutical companies such as Johnson & Johnson, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck & Co. Inc., Pfizer and others. 

“These guidelines are exactly what is needed to assist the control of neglected tropical diseases,” said Alan Fenwick, the director of USAID’s Neglected Tropical Disease Project. “As both the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the USAID recently have increased their support for control and other donors are coming on board, it is essential that strategies for control are based on sound evidence-based knowledge, and these guidelines provide a strong foundation for developing appropriate strategies.”

These diseases cause various impairments with potential lifelong implications, such as impaired growth and development of children, complications during pregnancies, underweight babies, disabling disfigurements, blindness, social stigma, and reduced economic productivity and income, the WHO said.

“We need to urgently work together to improve access to rapid-impact interventions and quality care,” said Dr. David Heymann, WHO’s acting assistant director-general for communicable diseases. “The need to do so is incontestable from all perspectives: moral, human rights, economic and global public good.”

The full text of the press release and more information on neglected tropical diseases are available on the WHO Web site.

For more information on U.S. policy, see Health.