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Success Stories

Lymphatic Filariasis has been successfully controlled in China in a population of 350 million people; transmission has also been arrested in several countries and is no longer a public health problem in- Thailand, Sri Lanka (Brugia), Suriname, Solomon Islands Trinidad and Tobago and Costa Rica. Donations of drugs for filariasis elimination are provided by GlaxoSmithKline and Merck& Co. Inc. As of 2005, over 400 million treatments world wide have been distributed.

 
 

Country in Focus: Burkina Faso
by Elisa Bosque-Olivia, Schistosomiasis Control Initiative 

Meet Aboubacar Ganame, an 11-year-old boy from the village of Koumbri in the Northern region of Burkina Faso.

    

Before the Burkina Faso National Schistosomiasis and Soil-Transmitted Helminth Control Program (PNLSc) came to treat for schistosomiasis and intestinal worms, Aboubacar was not healthy and was always tired. After being treated with both praziquantel for schistosomiasis and albendazole for intestinal worms he is a healthy, happy and motivated schoolboy.

Aboubacar was first treated for schistosomiasis and intestinal worms in October 2004 when the PNLSc conducted a mass treatment campaign in the village of Koumbri.  At the time Aboubacar was 8 years old and, prior to treatment, was not feeling well and noticed blood in his urine.

Aboubacar is now 11 years old, in the 8th grade, and has been treated three times by the national control program.  Not only is Aboubacar healthy and able to focus on his schoolwork, but he also has the energy to play soccer with his friends. 

 

River Blindness (onchocerciasis) has been eliminated as a public health problem and as a disease of socio-economic importance in ten West Africa countries protecting a population of some 50 million people. Control of blindness and skin disease via the donated drug ivermectin (Mectizan; donated by Merck & Co. Inc) is now reaching some 50 million people each year. 
Domestic transmission of Chagas disease has been controlled in five South American countries providing economic rates of return of around 30% on the investment in vector control. 
Human African trypanosomiasis has been dramatically reduced from some 300,000 cases to in 1997, to 30-50,000, when drugs became free of charge and control activities were supported through a Private-Public Partnership with Sanofi-Aventis providing support to WHO. An elimination programme is now planned. Leprosy has been reduced as a public health problem and is now only a problem in seven of the previously over hundred endemic countries. Since 1985 some 14.5 million people have been cured through multi-drug therapy. The numbers of new cases per year have fallen dramatically. The drugs for the cure of leprosy are donated by Novartis. 

Guinea Worm is moving towards eradication. The numbers of cases have been dramatically reduced from over 1 million in 1988 to around 10, 000 in 2005 in the remaining nine endemic countries. Several countries have been certified as free of transmission (India, Pakistan, Iran, Yemen, Senegal) and several are in the pre certification phase.

 

  

Schistosomiasis prevalence in Egypt has been reduced from around 20% to less than 1-2% using the drug praziquantel (now 25 cents US/treatment) over the last two decades and transmission largely eliminated over the last five years. In China, sustained control efforts have reduced the number of schistosomiasis cases from over 10 million in the 1950s to less than 1 million today. In Morocco, urinary schistosomiasis has been eliminated in 2005 due to sustained control efforts since the early 1980s while in Brazil, sustained control efforts since 1979 have led to a 56% decrease in mortality and a 43% decrease in severe pathology (needing hospitalization) in 1997. Six countries (with the assistance of the Schistosomiaisis Control Initiative) in Africa have reduced morbidity due to schistosomiasis and one of them is the first country in Africa reach 75% coverage of school age children against schistosomiasis and soil transmitted helminths set by WHA resolution 54.19.

  
Blinding Trachoma is now being controlled by the SAFE strategy (surgery, antibiotics, face washing, environmental change) with surgery and Zithromax donated by Pfizer and provided through the International Trachoma Initiative. Between 1999 and 2006, nearly 41 million antibiotic treatments have been administered, approximately 240,000 individuals have received sight-saving surgery and millions of people in endemic countries have benefited from health education and improved access to water and sanitation. In 2006, Morocco will mark the successful completion of its mass intervention campaign, while Ghana, Mauritania, Nepal and Vietnam remain on pace to complete their respective campaigns within the next five years.