Tatu Msangi, a HIV-positive woman from Tanzania was still able to deliver a healthy HIV-negative baby. She named the baby FAITH. Thanks to the work of organizations such as the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF), Msangi was taken onboard a preventive program called PMTCT (Prevention of Mother-to-child Transmission) sponsored by the foundation.
The EGPAF, a global leader in the fight against pediatric HIV/AIDS has reached more than 16 million women with services to prevent transmission of HIV to their babies. It currently works at more than 5,500 sites and in 15 countries to implement prevention, care, and treatment services; to further advance innovative research and to execute global advocacy activities that bring dramatic change to the lives of millions of women, children and their families worldwide.
One of the lucky women is Tatu Msangi, now EGPAF HIV-positive ambassador. Msangi is, today, ambassador of HOPE to millions of HIV-positive women.
Msangi, as US Secretary of State John Kerry said at a recent event to honor the US President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) was a “living example of the impact and meaning” of the work institutions such as EGPAF was doing.
She is, today, tirelessly championing the cause and highlighting the plight of women living with HIV in her home country of Tanzania.
The impact of HIV infection is devastating. The disease has robbed children of their parents, some at a very early age of their life. Tanzania has fought the AIDS epidemic for 30 years, says Msangi in a piece she wrote recently.
“But in 2004, the challenges we faced seem insurmountable. Almost no one in Tanzania received the antiretroviral medications they needed to stay healthy. Between 1996 and 1999, the number of children who lost both parents to AIDs-related complications doubled. Though milions of people needed to be tested for HIV and receive counseling, there were only 527 testing and counseling sites in the entire country. But thankfully, KCMC (Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center) – supported by the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF) – had the resources needed,” Msangi wrote on her blog.
Speaking in an exclusive telephone interview from Washington with ANA’s Musah Ibrahim Musah in Berlin, Msangi, now 41, spoke about the challenges faced by HIV-positive women in Tanzania and her role as EGPAF’s HIV-positive ambassador.
She mentioned access to antenatal services to women in the early stages of their pregnancy. “Most of them,” she says, “come to the clinic late. They are not taken in early sometimes they come after several months into their pregnancy. So, it is late.
“But we are still educating them on early attendance at the antenatal clinic so that they can get the services in the early stages of their pregnancy. But, it is really also a challenge”.
Asked about the stigmatization often faced by HIV-positive women in Tanzania, Msangi said: “We are trying to educate them (women) at the clinic and to encourage them to form support groups of HIV-positive women. We are also working to get them as counselors to counsel other women to make them aware that they are not alone; that there are also other women who are HIV-positive like them. Also, to assure them that it is not a problem for one alone.”
On matters confidentiality among health workers and how to address the issue to attain public confidence in the privacy of HIV testing, the EGPAF ambassador agrees that the “problem of confidentiality” was crucial in Tanzania where she works at the Kilimanjaro Christian Medical Center (KCMC) as a nurse.
“Our clients are complaining now and then about the issue of confidentiality. But we are busily educating the health workers about the problem. Because if there is lack of confidentiality, our clients would not ‘walk-in’ and, sometimes they leave the nearby health facilities to go far away to attend a clinic. So, it is an issue that we are working to educate the counselors on confidentiality.
Asked about men’s attitude towards women infected with HIV, Msangi stressed that “one of the biggest challenges in the fight against HIV is male attitudes.”
She urged women, girlfriends, wives, and mothers to keep trying to encourage men to come to “their senses” and learn about HIV.
“Once a man gets involved with his partner in the PMTCT process, it makes a big difference—not just to that man but to the men around him. Men will listen to another HIV-positive man more than they will a woman. That’s our culture,” she adds.
Adult HIV prevalence (ages 15 – 19) in Tanzania, estimated at 5.6% in 2009 has declined slightly from 6.5% in 2005. HIV prevalence is much higher in urban (8.7%) than rural (4.7%) areas, and females are more likely to be HIV positive than males (6.8% vs. 4.7% respectively). Prevalence is higher among adults from the richest economic quintile as compared with the poorest economic quintile. Between 2009 and 2011, Tanzania has seen a 19% decline in new pediatric HIV infections – from 26,900 to 21,900. HIV prevalence among pregnant women was 5.5% in 2009.
Tanzania is scaling up its PMTCT program, mainly through integrating PMTCT services into MNCH services. By 2010, the majority (90.4%) of ANC facilities had integrated PMTCT services. HIV testing among pregnant women increased from 14% in 2005 to 86% in 2010[10], and 74% of pregnant women living with HIV received ARVs for PMTCT in 2011.
Tanzania has adopted WHO Option A regimen for prophylaxis and a costed national PMTCT scale-up plan (2011-2015) is in place. Given the high level of PMTCT service coverage in Tanzania, the country is well placed to achieve Global Plan targets by 2015.
Former presidents of Guatemala and Chile and former PAHO director join forces with the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases to eliminate diseases of poverty
WASHINGTON, D.C., May 7, 2013 – Today, the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (Global Network), a major initiative of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, announced His Excellency, President Alvaro Arzú Irigoyen of Guatemala (1996-2000), His Excellency, President Ricardo Lagos Escobar of Chile (2000-2006) and former Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) Director Dr. Mirta Roses Periago as the organization’s newest Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) Special Envoys. They will join the efforts of current NTD Special Envoy, His Excellency, President John A. Kufuor of the Republic of Ghana (2001-2009), who was appointed in April 2012. The collaboration was announced at a panel hosted by the Global Network and the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) to welcome the new NTD Special Envoys.
The new NTD Special Envoys will focus primarily on the Latin America and Caribbean (LAC) region. President Arzú, President Lagos and Dr. Roses will provide the political voice and the technical expertise needed to reach the World Health Organization’s (WHO) goal to control or eliminate the most common NTDs by 2020. The NTD Special Envoys will encourage endemic country government officials to prioritize the development and implementation of national plans of action for NTD treatment and control and to increase resource allocation toward these programs. Additionally, they will work with key G8/G20 countries, such as Brazil, Canada and Japan, to increase their support for the prevention and treatment of NTDs through expanded technical assistance and increased investments across the region.
“We are thrilled to expand our team of NTD Special Envoys,” said Dr. Neeraj Mistry, managing director of the Global Network. “President Kufuor’s efforts have paved the way for increased NTD bilateral engagement and advocacy. With President Arzú, President Lagos and Dr. Roses joining him, I am confident that we will see increased commitment towards global NTD control and elimination efforts—particularly among health ministers and policy makers in endemic countries.”
NTDs cause blindness, massive swelling in appendages and limbs, severe malnutrition and anemia. They are a leading cause of pregnancy complications among women and are a key source of poverty, reducing school attendance among children and worker productivity for adults. In the LAC region alone, 100 million people are currently infected with one or more NTD, most of whom live in impoverished, rural areas.
“NTDs disproportionately affect marginalized groups, such as indigenous populations and people living in isolated, rural areas,” said President Arzú. “I am honored to be a part of the Global Network’s special envoy team and the global effort to improve the lives of billions of people currently living in poverty.”
NTD control and elimination programs are some of the most cost-effective public health interventions available today. For a cost of approximately 50 cents per person, a packet of pills administered once a year can treat and protect against these diseases. Pharmaceutical companies donate most of the treatments and many programs use existing infrastructure, such as schools and community centers, to administer them.
“Addressing NTDs today is a highly cost-effective investment in the region’s future,” said President Lagos. “NTD treatment programs help increase school attendance, improve maternal and infant health and support economic development. Eliminating or controlling NTDs will accelerate existing efforts to achieve the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in Latin America and the Caribbean.”
The LAC region already has made significant progress towards NTD control and elimination. While serving as the Director of PAHO, Dr. Roses set the stage for the passage of the resolution, “Elimination of Neglected Diseases and other Poverty-Related Infections,” which was adopted by all of the PAHO Member States in 2009. This critical call to action set the goal of eliminating 10 neglected infectious diseases and drastically reducing the burden of two others by the end of 2015.
“The LAC region is poised to become a leader in the global movement to control and eliminate NTDs,” said Dr. Roses. “We have already seen unprecedented collaboration across governments, the private sector and civil society groups through the London Declaration and the 2009 PAHO resolution. In my new role as NTD Special Envoy, I will ensure these efforts are carried forward until we meet our elimination goals.”
In 1996, former President Arzú signed a peace agreement that put an end to the 36-year-long Guatemalan civil war. He is also credited with reducing crime rates, improving infrastructure, education, indigenous rights and health care in the country during his term. The dedication of former President Lagos has been instrumental to the economic, health care and educational development of Chile. Dr. Roses, a native of Argentina, recently concluded a widely successful two-term role (2003 to the beginning of 2013) as the Director of PAHO, the oldest international health organization and the regional office for the Americas of the WHO. Dr. Roses has shown a deep, unwavering commitment to achieving equity in the delivery of health care and has championed the cause of marginalized populations in the region who shoulder the greatest burden of disease.
For more information about today’s discussion and to learn more about the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, please visit http://www.globalnetwork.org.
About NTDs
NTDs are a group of 17 parasitic and bacterial infections that are the most common afflictions of the world’s poorest people. They blind, disable and disfigure their victims, trapping them in a cycle of poverty and disease. Research shows that treating NTDs lifts millions out of poverty by ensuring that children stay in school to learn and prosper; by strengthening worker productivity; and by improving maternal and child health.
About Sabin Vaccine Institute
Sabin Vaccine Institute is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization of scientists, researchers, and advocates dedicated to reducing needless human suffering caused by vaccine preventable and neglected tropical diseases. Sabin works with governments, leading public and private organizations, and academic institutions to provide solutions for some of the world’s most pervasive health challenges. Since its founding in 1993 in honor of the oral polio vaccine developer, Dr. Albert B. Sabin, the Institute has been at the forefront of efforts to control, treat, and eliminate these diseases by developing new vaccines, advocating use of existing vaccines, and promoting increased access to affordable medical treatments. For more information please visit http://www.sabin.org.
A new global survey sponsored by Novartis Oncology of nearly 1,300 women in 12 countries finds that despite breast cancer being the most common cancer in women worldwide, women living with advanced or metastatic breast cancer feel isolated and left out of the broader breast cancer movement. The global “Count Us, Know Us, Join Us” (Count Us) survey shows that nearly two-thirds of women with advanced breast cancer (ABC) feel like no one understands what they are going through. In fact, four of 10 women surveyed feel isolated from the broader breast cancer awareness movement, which focuses primarily on early detection, prevention and possible cure[2].
“When first diagnosed with breast cancer, women are instantly part of a vibrant breast cancer support community,” said Maira Caleffi, MD, President of Brazilian Federation of Philanthropic Institutions to Support Breast Health (FEMAMA). “But when their cancer metastasizes or if they are first diagnosed with metastatic breast cancer, it is no longer about becoming a survivor; it’s about surviving.”
In early stage breast cancer (stages I and II), cancer cells are confined to the breast or immediate lymph node area; the focus for the patient is to become a “survivor.” When cancer metastasizes, treatments that worked at the beginning may lose effectiveness over time[5]. The focus shifts to surviving, despite the anxiety and uncertainty that comes with disease progression and ongoing treatments[6]. The survey showed that these patients crave resources and support that are specific to their needs.
Along with key members of the global advocacy community, Novartis Oncology has created resources, support and education tailored to the ABC community on the newly launched http://www.advancedbreastcancercommunity.org. The website is a hub of resources for people living with ABC as well as their caregivers, supporters and loved ones. Such resources include a step-by-step guide to creating a personal plan after being diagnosed, videos that offer first-person accounts of life with ABC and lists of advocacy organizations, periodicals and medical journals that focus on the advanced forms of breast cancer.
The global survey also found that more than three in four women (77%) say they actively seek out information on their own; however, nearly half (45%) say it is hard to find information about ABC, and more than half (55%) say the information that is available does not address their needs[2]. This is likely because most of the information available is applicable only to those with early stage breast cancer.
In addition to lack of information and feelings of isolation, many women (41%) find that support from friends and family wanes over time[2]. Interestingly, all of this may motivate some women to create their own support networks. Nearly half of women (45%) say that being diagnosed with ABC has led them to volunteer or give back to the ABC community[2].
“These survey results give great insight into our global community and the reality of living with metastatic breast cancer, an incurable and deadly disease,” said CJ (Dian) M. Corneliussen-James, Director of Advocacy for METAvivor Research and Support, Inc., a nonprofit advanced breast cancer organization. “It is my hope that this ignites a movement of public recognition, understanding and outreach so that the isolation and rejection our community so often encounters might become a thing of the past.”
About the “Count Us, Know Us, Join Us” Survey
The Count Us survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive on behalf of Novartis Oncology between October 8, 2012 and March 15, 2013. A total of 1,273 women diagnosed with ABC (that is, breast cancer that has spread beyond the breast to other parts of the body) completed the survey in 12 countries: US (n=349), Canada (n=55), Mexico (n=102), Brazil (n= 100), Argentina (n=100), UK (n=66), Germany (n=100), Russia (n=100), India (n=100), Taiwan (n=99), Hong Kong (n=52) and Lebanon (n=50). Total sample data are not weighted and therefore representative only of the individuals interviewed. A global post-weight was applied to ensure all countries received an equal weight in the global and regional data. No estimates of error can be computed.
Additional Count Us Survey findings:
Support and Information from Healthcare Providers:
– Most women (80%) say they get enough support from their oncologists[2].
– Three in four women (76%) would like their healthcare professional to address their emotional needs[2].
– One in three women (35%) say it is important to make information about decreased interest in sexual activity available to women with ABC[2].
Relationships and Marriage:
– Two in five women (40%) say their relationship with their spouse or partner has been negatively impacted a lot or a moderate amount by their ABC diagnosis[2].
– However, nearly all women (87%) say they receive sufficient support from their spouse/partner[2].
– Many women (41%) find that support from friends and family wanes over time[2]. Workplace:
– More than half of employed women (57%) say most or all of their co-workers know about their ABC[2].
– About seven in ten women (69%) say their ABC has interfered with their ability to work such that they suffered a loss of personal income[2].
About Count Us, Know Us, Join Us
The mission of Count Us, Know Us, Join Us is to recognize those living with ABC, their caregivers, supporters, friends and family members. This is a community that has different physical and emotional needs from those living with early stage breast cancer. Novartis Oncology has collaborated with leading members of the global advocacy community to create the program and corresponding website – http://www.advancedbreastcancercommunity.org.
About advanced breast cancer
Advanced breast cancer comprises metastatic breast cancer (stage IV) and locally advanced breast cancer (stage III)[7]. Metastatic breast cancer is the most serious form of the disease and occurs when the cancer has spread beyond the breast to other parts of the body, such as the brain, bones or liver[7]. Locally advanced breast cancer occurs when the cancer has spread to lymph nodes and/or other tissue in the area of the breast, but not to distant sites in the body[7].
About Novartis
Novartis provides innovative healthcare solutions that address the evolving needs of patients and societies. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis offers a diversified portfolio to best meet these needs: innovative medicines, eye care, cost-saving generic pharmaceuticals, preventive vaccines and diagnostic tools, over-the-counter and animal health products. Novartis is the only global company with leading positions in these areas. In 2012, the Group achieved net sales of USD 56.7 billion, while R&D throughout the Group amounted to approximately USD 9.3 billion (USD 9.1 billion excluding impairment and amortization charges). Novartis Group companies employ approximately 129,000 full-time-equivalent associates and operate in more than 140 countries around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.novartis.com.
Novartis is on Twitter. Sign up to follow @Novartis at http://twitter.com/novartis.
[2] Count Us, Know Us, Join Us Advanced Breast Cancer Survey, Harris Interactive, sponsored by Novartis Oncology (2013).
[3] Buckley N, Isherwood A. Breast Cancer. Decision Resources. March 2011:1-301.
[4] Forouzanfar MH, Foreman KJ, Delossantos AM, et a;. Breast and cervical cancer in 187 countries between 1980 and 2010: a systematic analysis. Lancet. October 2011;378(9801):1461-84.
[5] Gonzalez-Angulo AM, Morales-Vasquez F, Hortobagyi GN. Overview of Resistance to Systemic Therapy in Patients with Breast Cancer. In: Madame Curie Bioscience Database [Internet]. Austin (TX): Landes Bioscience; 2000-. Available at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK6306. Accessed on March 15, 2013.
[6] MBC Advocacy Working Group. Bridging gaps, expanding outreach: Metastatic Breast Cancer Advocacy Working Group consensus report. The Breast. 2009; 18:273-5.
[7] American Cancer Society. How do you determine the stage of breast cancer? Available at http://www.cancer.org/cancer/breastcancer/detailedguide/breast-cancer-staging. Accessed on October 9, 2012.
Novartis is pleased to announce that GBCHealth, a coalition of more than 230 private sector companies working to improve global health, has awarded the company’s Arogya Parivar program the Business Action on Health Award for Application of Core Competence. Arogya Parivar is a sustainable business model that makes affordable, high-quality medicines accessible to underserved millions in India. The program also expands access to health education and consultations in remote villages.
“We are proud to be recognized by GBCHealth for our Arogya Parivar program,” said Joe Jimenez, Novartis Chief Executive Officer. “Arogya Parivar is an important part of the work Novartis is doing around the world to develop sustainable solutions that address the unmet medical needs of people in developing nations. Through our social ventures programs, we’re making a difference by encouraging better health and at the same time driving local economic growth. We expect Arogya Parivar to have an enduring impact in India and look forward to extending the model to other developing economies.”
Arogya Parivar, meaning “Healthy Family” in Hindi, is a for-profit social business developed by Novartis that adapts a market-based approach to improve healthcare access for India’s rural poor. Novartis trains health educators, who teach communities about health and disease prevention, and sales supervisors, who increase local medicine access across several therapeutic areas by informing local pharmacists about products. Since launching Arogya Parivar in 2007, Novartis has trained more than 500 health educators and supervisors and improved access to healthcare for 42 million patients across 33,000 villages in India. As a result of the positive impact of Arogya Parivar, Novartis is working to further expand the social business model in 2014.
Arogya Parivar is one example of a Novartis “social venture” approach. Social ventures build local, sustainable solutions to address healthcare challenges in emerging markets. These programs go beyond medicine, donations, and price reductions, by tackling larger societal issues that impact access to healthcare: education, infrastructure and distribution. With each social venture, Novartis adapts its approach to meet diverse local health and cultural needs. To learn more about Novartis Social Ventures, please visit http://www.novartis.com/corporate-responsibility/access-to-healthcare/our-key-initiatives/index.shtml.
About Novartis
Novartis provides innovative healthcare solutions that address the evolving needs of patients and societies. Headquartered in Basel, Switzerland, Novartis offers a diversified portfolio to best meet these needs: innovative medicines, eye care, cost-saving generic pharmaceuticals, preventive vaccines and diagnostic tools, over-the-counter and animal health products. Novartis is the only global company with leading positions in these areas. In 2012, the Group achieved net sales of USD 56.7 billion, while R&D throughout the Group amounted to approximately USD 9.3 billion (USD 9.1 billion excluding impairment and amortization charges). Novartis Group companies employ approximately 129,000 full-time-equivalent associates and operate in more than 140 countries around the world. For more information, please visit http://www.novartis.com.
Morally speaking, I do not take kindly to the decision by members of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA) to embark on an indefinite strike action, in view of the generally poor state of the country’s healthcare system even in auspicious times. At the same time, however, I fully recognize the imperative need for our nation’s fronline citizens – who daily deal with tough life-and-death decisions – to be accorded the remunerative priority that they equally deserve with our largely mediocre politicians (See “Stop Begging and Meet Our Demands – GMA” Citifmonline.com/Ghanaweb.com 4/26/13).
Unfortunately, in the sort of ossified neocolonialist culture in which we live, the most professionally significant Ghanaian citizens are often being told by our pathologically and, for the most part, unconscionably kleptocratic politicians that, at best, they are second-class citizens. Else, how come it that our virtually do-nothing parliamentarians are quadrennially paid humongous sums in the dubious name of “gratuities,” for what they ought to be grateful for, Ghanaian citizens and taxpayers have yet to know, even as the basic and barely livable salaries of our doctors and teachers, among a plethora of other civil servants, are cavalierly and callously held in arrears for months, almost as if our nation’s healthcare workers have absolutely no right, whatsoever, to eke out a decent existence?
Indeed, were my opinion to be directly solicited by the President of the Ghana Medical Association (GMA), I would promptly suggest that until a quadrennial regime of salary gratuities was established for our nation’s health workers and educators and, indeed, just about every civil servant, the GMA strike must continue without let. Needless to say, the time for real revolutionary accountability is now.
If, indeed, as many of the invariably cynical defenders of the quadrennial parliamentary gratuities actually believe themselves to be of greater worth and a far higher social status, and thus deserving of a much greater salary, let them step into the shoes of the striking doctors and out-perform them and thereby promptly render these physicians otiose or professionally redundant.
I mean, isn’t it a crying shame and a darn pity that lawmakers who cannot even undertake a comprehensive review of the country’s Fourth-Republican Constitution would be clamoring for and fiercely defending officially sanctioned scamming of the Ghanaian taxpeyer to the preposterous tune of between $100,000 and $300,000 (American Dollars)in gratuity emoluments every four years?
I particularly do not give a hoot whether President John Dramani Mahama stripped himself naked, hung and all, and went down on all fours begging the striking doctors to go back to work. The fact of the matter is that a heavy dosage of common sense and justice and accountability ought to be infused into the country’s political culture; and if it takes the striking GMA workers and other paramedical professionals to bring this about, then, so be it!.
Kwame Okoampa-Ahoofe, Jr., Ph.D. Department of English Nassau Community College of SUNY Garden City, New York
—New Video Builds Momentum in Global Effort to End Neglected Tropical Diseases by 2020
In a hard-hitting new video released in Washington D.C. recently, celebrities from around the world called for support in the global effort to control and eliminate seven diseases that plague more than 1 billion people around the world, including 500 million children. In the video, international actors and musicians witness the devastation neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) cause and encourage their fans to be part of the solution. The video is part of the END7 campaign, the first global public awareness initiative dedicated to controlling and eliminating the seven most prevalent NTDs by 2020.
Emily Blunt (“Salmon Fishing in the Yemen,” “Devil Wears Prada”); Eddie Redmayne (“Les Miserables,” “My Week with Marilyn”); Tom Felton (“Harry Potter” series); Yvonne Chaka Chaka (South African pop star); Tom Hollander (“Pirates of the Caribbean,” “Pride and Prejudice”); and Priyanka Chopra (leading Bollywood actress and international recording artist) are featured in the video. These celebrities join a growing cast of supporters including Katy Perry, Ewan McGregor, Alyssa Milano, Norah Jones, Rosanna Cash, Paula Abdul and Stella McCartney to help raise public awareness about NTDs.
“Until recently, I didn’t even know these diseases existed,” said actress Emily Blunt. “The serious disabilities and suffering they inflict on the world’s poorest people is heart-wrenching. But I was inspired to join the END7 campaign because, for once, the solution is simple and available now. And the cost for treatment is so low that almost anyone can make a big difference by giving just a few cents.”
END7 relies heavily on individuals spreading the word and getting involved through Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. It aims to raise the public awareness and funding required to cover the cost of distributing medicine and setting up treatment programs for NTDs. END7 is encouraging supporters to sign a pledge to inspire global policy leaders and philanthropists to take action and help end these diseases by 2020.
It costs approximately 50 cents to treat one person against the seven most common NTDs for an entire year. Pharmaceutical companies have donated billions of pills to treat these diseases, and many programs use existing infrastructure, such as schools and community centers, as distribution points, making NTD treatment one of most cost-effective public health initiatives available today.
The seven most common NTDs—hookworm, ascariasis (roundworm), trichuriasis (whipworm), schistosomiasis (snail fever), lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis), onchocerciasis (river blindness) and trachoma—infect more than one in six people worldwide, including more than 500 million children. They cause blindness, massive swelling in appendages and limbs, severe malnutrition and anemia. NTDs prevent children from growing and learning. They reduce adults’ economic productivity and ability to care for their families, keeping communities trapped in a cycle of poverty and disease.
“In India alone, nearly 700 million people are at risk for elephantiasis and more than 200 million children are at risk for worm infections,” said Bollywood star Priyanka Chopra. “Through the END7 campaign, we can offer a solution that will change the lives of millions of people living in poverty in Asia and around the world. I am proud to be a part of the global effort to end these diseases.”
The END7 campaign was launched in 2012 by the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, an initiative of the Sabin Vaccine Institute. Wunderman UK leads the creative direction for the campaign, which includes this latest video along with the campaign’s website, Facebook hub and the previously released “Mission in a Minute” video.
“We are building a movement that allows nearly everyone to play a part in making these diseases history,” said Dr. Neeraj Mistry, managing director of the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases. “Since last January’s London Declaration, we have seen a significant increase in support for NTD control and elimination among global leaders. What we need now is for the general public to get involved in our cause.”
To watch the video, entitled END7: How to Shock a Celebrity, and learn more about the END7 campaign, visit http://www.end7.org.
Tuberculosis (TB) is one of the world’s deadliest pandemic diseases and is becoming increasingly resistant to current drugs. Only with faster, better and affordable cures for tuberculosis can we save millions of lives and overcome this global epidemic. TB kills 1.4 million people each year or more than one person every 25 seconds. Propelled by global poverty, the AIDS epidemic, and drug resistance, the global threat of TB is greater than ever.
Mr David Greeley, who joined the TB Alliance in 2012 as Senior Vice President, External Affairs, with responsibility for TB Alliance’s resource mobilization, policy, advocacy and community engagement initiatives spoke in an exclusive interview to Musah Ibrahim Musah, Editor at AfricaNewsAnalysis in Berlin recently. Excerpts:
Musah: Mr Greeley, TB is by all indications a treatable disease. How do you ensure that it is actually treatable?
Greeley: So, currently, the regimen that is used to treat most populations, these drug sensitive populations is something called HRZE. And that is effective in many, many patients. But adherence is a problem. And adherence is a problem because it takes anywhere from six months to nine months to treat. And many patients feel better after a shorter period of time, but in fact, they live in resource poor settings, and, as a result, with this long regimen, it becomes difficult for them to adhere to and that results in drug resistant. So, the TB Alliance is focused on, as the only organization involved in discovering and developing a new TB medicine, is to shorten treatment, make it easier for patients to be able to be on an effective regimen. And we have trials now that can reduce treatments up to four months and potentially down to two months, making adherence much more easy as well as trying to resist the onslaught of drug resistance which is a big, big problem forcing patients to treat beyond treatment anywhere from two-years to two-and-a-half years and much more expensive and difficult to treat regimen.
Looking at your vision to shorten TB treatment from 7 to 10 days, do we have the technology to achieve that?
A vision is a vision; and we’re working in that direction and already we have shown in our clinical work the potential to reduce treatment from 30 months down to two months; and we hope one day to be able to treat it like any other antibiotic, after all, that’s what TB treatment is, down to 7 to 10 days.
Why are the strains drug resistant? Is it because of patient non-compliance or are the strains becoming more clever?
The strains are becoming cleverer and some of the statistics demonstrates that there are an increasing number, up to 15% I believe in Eastern Europe, near Germany, of new cases of drug-resistant. So, most drug-resistance comes about because people do not adhere to the regimen, and they become resistant. But resistance, drug resistance now can be passed onto new patients who have never before been, have active TB. Instead of being drug sensitive TB jump already to be drug resistant TB. That’s an increasing problem with increasingly difficult complicated strains of TB.
Is TB a disease of neglected people?
TB is a disease of neglected people. It occurs for the most part, in poor settings, whether that be, in Africa, or in parts of China, or even in the US, and in western countries. And it is a disease of poverty and it’s really a vicious cycle because the more the TB broods in poverty, the more poverty takes place. And TB itself is a drain on one’s personal income; and that, itself, means that more disposable income has to be spent on TB treatment, and long TB treatment, rather than something else. TB is also bred in poverty because it is a disease that’s transmitted through the air. TB is everywhere and anywhere and its low resource settings, where sanitary conditions are not good with its over-crowding habitations. TB is spread much more quickly. One active TB patient is estimated to infect up to another 15. So, until and unless we have better diagnostics, early detection and shorter treatment we can’t really do anything to transform the TB disease which today kills more than 1.4 million people every year.
Finally, is the TB Alliance satisfied with the current collaboration with governments in Africa in fighting the disease?
Yes, I think, to be effective in delivering healthcare in any country in the world including in Africa, in African countries, collaboration with the governments is critical. What they must understand is TB regiment has not been on the market, new ones in almost half a century. So, we have to work with them to get them prepared whether it is regulatory approval, registration, changing protocols, and practices and guidelines, for the introduction of new transformative TB treatment. So national TB programs and governments need to be very active in that regard, and also advocate when they are not able themselves to finance some of the drug TB R&D (Research and Development) to get donors and other institutions that have the means to be able to fund TB trials in their countries so that one day, more patients can be effectively treated with more effective shorter and less expensive regimens.
Thanks for your time, Mr Greeley.
David Greeley
Mr. Greeley has spent more than 25 years working for various international non-profit development and health organizations, and for the pharmaceutical company, Merck & Co., Inc. Most recently, he was Vice President at the non-profit FHI 360, where he was responsible for developing and overseeing partnerships to provide health information, services and products in the developing world, and for garnering the financial support to do so. From 1998-2008, Mr. Greeley worked for Merck, first heading up the Latin America and Caribbean division’s Public Affairs and Policy Department, and then, leading the company’s global HIV/AIDS programs in the Office of Corporate Responsibility. In that capacity, he oversaw Merck’s access programs, public-private partnerships, policy, and stakeholder relations. Previously, Mr. Greeley worked at the non-profits PSI and CARE, including establishing PSI’s new business development department and overseeing programs in Asia. Mr. Greeley has travelled to 90 countries, and has worked and lived in the US, Latin America, Asia, and Africa.
Mr. Greeley holds a B.A. in political science from Brandeis University and an M.A. from the Columbia University School of International Affairs. He also serves as Chairman of the Board of Afropop.
About Tuberculosis
Tuberculosis (TB) is a global pandemic, killing someone approximately every 25 seconds — nearly 1.4 million in 2010 alone.
TB is second only to HIV as the leading infectious killer of adults worldwide. It is among the three greatest causes of death of women aged 15-44 and is the leading infectious cause of death among people with HIV/AIDS.
TB is global. The WHO estimates that two billion people — one third of the world’s population — are infected with Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb), the bacillus that causes the disease. M.tb’s unique cell wall, which has a waxy coating primarily composed of mycolic acids, allows the bacillus to lie dormant for many years. The body’s immune system may restrain the disease, but it does not destroy it. While some people with this latent infection will never develop active TB, five to 10 percent of carriers will become sick in their lifetime.
Once active, TB attacks the respiratory system and other organs, destroying body tissue. The disease is contagious, spreading through the air by coughing, sneezing, or even talking. An estimated nine million new active cases develop each year.
At any given moment, more than 12 million people around the world are suffering from an active infection.
Despite enormous advances in provision of services in recent years, TB’s deadly synergy with HIV/AIDS and a surge in drug-resistant strains are threatening to destabilize gains in TB control. While incidence is stable or falling in many regions of the world, global rates of new infections are still rising in many endemic areas where TB goes hand-in-hand with HIV/AIDS and the effects of poverty. About
TB Alliance
Our mission is to discover and develop better, faster-acting, and affordable drugs to fight tuberculosis.
We envision a world where no one has to die of tuberculosis. However, this cannot be achieved without new, better, and faster-acting tuberculosis drug regimens. The Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance) was established in 2000 as a not-for-profit product development partnership to lead the search for new TB regimens and catalyze global efforts for new TB regimens that can bring hope, and health, to millions.
Since it’s inception in 2000, the TB Alliance has been making leaps of progress toward this goal.
Before the TB Alliance was established, there were no clinical-stage TB drug candidates being developed, let alone realistic hope for novel TB drug regimens. Today, working with a broad range of public and private stakeholders, including pharmaceutical companies, universities, and other research laboratories around the world, the TB Alliance is leading the advancement of the most comprehensive portfolio of TB drug candidates in history. From this global network, the TB Alliance leverages the most promising science to advance new TB drug regimens that are needed to fight this pandemic.
We are driven by the needs of TB patients around the world, and committed to ensuring that approved new regimens are affordable, adopted and available to those who need them. To ensure our products reach the hands of those who need them most urgently, the TB Alliance and its partners are working with global, regional, and national stakeholders to facilitate regulatory approval, adoption by TB programs, and widespread availability of new drug regimens.
–President Kufuor calls for prioritization of support in fight against Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs)
His Excellency, John Agyekum Kufuor served as the President of the Republic of Ghana from 2001-2009. During his presidency, he served as chairperson of the African Union (2007-08) during which he supervised the peaceful Resolution of the conflict in Kenya, among others. He was chairman of the Economic Community of West African States for two Terms (2003-05) and saw to the successful negotiations that brought peace and Major post-war reconstruction to Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast and Liberia. In April 2012 Sabin Vaccine Institute announced President Kufuor as the organization’s new neglected tropical disease (NTD) Special Envoy. In the first year of his appointment as Special Envoy, President Kufuor has travelled extensively promoting the efforts of the Global Network in the fight against NTDs. During his second trip (to Belgium and France) on behalf of the Global Network, President Kufuor took time off his busy schedule to talk to Musah Ibrahim Musah, Editor at AfricaNewsAnalysis in a telephone interview from Paris. Excerpts:
Your Excellency, you have travelled and met other leaders since you assumed the leadership as Special Envoy to the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases. How optimistic are you about fresh support for long-term pledges to boost NTD investment in Africa and beyond?
I am quite optimistic because everywhere we have been so far, we’ve been given a good ear. These authorities are people who have been involved and supporting and sponsoring the causes for promoting the general good health of people. Our work really is, mainly to get them to, perhaps, balance their allocations of support. Because if you take the various authorities like Norway, Germany, Belgium, and we were with the European Commission yesterday (March 12, 2013), the United States, the United Kingdom, all of them have been supporting the fight against the so-called orphaned or Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs). The only thing is, perhaps the prioritization of support for these diseases have tended to lag behind that of the major known diseases like HIV-AIDS, malaria, and TB. So, our work is to, more or less get them not to continue to treat the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) like the ‘country cousins’ of the major ones. We find all these diseases so inter-connected with the big ones that if they are not included in the prioritization we find eventually that they might become causes for relapse even of the treated major diseases in the endemic areas. So we want a more balanced support for the NTDs with the big ones.
We are sure you are working hard to get the prioritization of support to a positive end.
Yes, yes, everywhere we’ve been so far, we’ve had a very good hearing and there is no reason on our part to doubt the sincerity of commitment of the donor community.
Some experts describe you as “Voice for Change” to try and impress on your fellow leaders in the G20, the European Union etc. on the need for fresh impetus in the cause. How satisfied are you with your role so far?
Well, I am quite satisfied. I got invited to assume the role as you describe it just about two years ago and as I said, so far everywhere I’ve gone, I’ve been given a good hearing and I do not have any cause that the efforts of the Global Network would be in vain. So, I am happy.
Are government’s and policy makers you have so far met, aware of the hypothesis that investing in NTD control and elimination is a cost-effective public health measure and thus one of the best buys in healthcare interventions?
Well, the argument is so clear, and is supported by very convincing Statistics from authoritative sources and calculations that you need as little as 50 Cent a year per person to fight at least seven of the so-called neglected diseases to bring them under control, effective control, …… more cost effective than this, whereas with the major ones like HIV-AIDS, you’re talking anti-malarials fights, you’re talking tuberculosis, figures per person tend to be very, very, high; but the prevalence, if you have to compare and contrast, are of the neglected diseases is so big, they afflict over a billion people compared with, say, some tens of millions with the more publicized diseases like HIV-AIDS. These diseases are opportunistic, if you fight say malaria exclusively, and you do not look at the various worms in our water bodies and our polluted soils, then you see that your efforts with say, malaria, may be not be realized politically. So, the diseases are all related, inter-related. So, we want an integrated and comprehensive assault on all the diseases including the big names as well as the neglected diseases. This is what the whole campaign is all about.
Your Excellency, what, in your view is the role of public private partnership in the management, control and elimination of NTDs?
The whole world is awakening to the necessity to tackle social problems of growth and development again in a partnership way. You don’t leave all the problems and challenges to governments exclusively and then sit back to expect solutions to the challenges. The governments after all are representatives of the bigger society. And so what the public private partnership concept is calling on societies to do is to realize that, for improving the quality of life of people which should be central all this things we’re talking about is government’s efforts plus the effects of say the private sector, and when we talk private sector here, we include civil society organizations and even the individuals and communities. We must all hold hands together to fight the challenges; to overcome the challenges. So at the end of the day, quality of life of the citizen or, of the individual is bettered. That’s what it is about; and I believe the entire world is awakening to this. And this is the justification for promoting the public private partnership idea.
Your Excellency, what would you say about the London Declaration one year on?
Well I will say the world is moving in the right direction. We are into globalization. I personally believe, now we’re not talking of just nationalities, or races or gender, we’re talking of humanity and I believe the world is moving in the right direction with the declaration such as the London one.
As part of the END7 campaign, a PSA (Public Service Announcement) was recently launched featuring celebrities. How important, in your opinion, is Social Media in the fight against NTDs?
Social Media? The world moves on communications now. If you conceive an idea and you do not put it across convincingly to rally support across the board for the implementation of the idea, the idea remains only in your head, perhaps. So the social media, I believe has a very, very important role to play in advancing the good cause of our time.
Finally, Mr President, in your role as Special Envoy to the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), what would you say are the economic value of NTD programmes and the positive impact NTD control and elimination campaigns have on socio-economic development?
You need a healthy worker to achieve productivity. If I may reduce it to the proper nurturing of children, if the child is not made healthy, you put it to school, and you find that it cannot even pay the necessary attention to studies. So, efforts in trying to educate children would be quite wasteful. So, health I believe is the pivot around which you talk productivity. And it is so in the economy. A healthy community would be a productive community, and that’s the way to grow the economy to better conditions of life for all. So, what we’re trying to do in the fight against neglected diseases is, by implication, like trying to promote productivity.
Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases
The Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (Global Network), a major program of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, is an advocacy and resource mobilization initiative dedicated to raising the awareness, political will, and funding necessary to control and eliminate the seven most common neglected tropical diseases (NTDs): soil-transmitted helminths (hookworm, ascariasis, and trichuriasis), onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, trachoma, and lymphatic filariasis.
The vision of the Global Network is a world free of NTDs where children and families are able to grow, learn and become productive members of their communities. We are committed to working with governments, individuals, institutions and corporations globally to make this a reality as we end the neglect.
Sabin Vaccine Institute
Sabin Vaccine Institute (Sabin) is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization made up of scientists, researchers, and advocates dedicated to reducing needless human suffering from vaccine preventable and neglected tropical diseases. Sabin works with governments, leading public and private organizations, and academic institutions to provide solutions for some of the world’s most pervasive health care challenges.
Since its founding in 1993 in honor of the oral polio vaccine developer, Dr. Albert B. Sabin, the Institute has been at the forefront of efforts to control, treat, and eliminate vaccine preventable and neglected tropical diseases by developing new vaccines, advocating use of existing vaccines, and promoting increased access to affordable medical treatments.
Sabin was founded on the legacy and global vision of one of medicine’s most pre-eminent scientific figures, Dr. Albert B. Sabin, who is best known for developing the oral live virus polio vaccine. Dr. Sabin not only dedicated his entire professional career to groundbreaking medical advancements to reduce human suffering, he also waged a tireless and lifelong campaign against poverty and ignorance.
Sabin works to provide greater access to vaccines and essential treatments for hundreds of millions of people stuck in a cycle of pain, poverty and despair. Sabin’s three main programs – Sabin Vaccine Development, the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, and Vaccine Advocacy and Education – strive to uphold Dr. Sabin’s lifelong efforts by developing preventative measures for diseases that place burdens on the world’s poorest countries.
Sabin’s diverse partnerships are key to our efforts to fulfill the organization’s mission. In 2011, the Sabin Product Development Partnership (Sabin PDP) relocated to Houston, Texas to begin a new affiliation with Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) and Baylor College of Medicine (BCM). The Sabin PDP laboratories are housed in a new, state-of-the-art, 10,000 square-foot facility at TCH, which is part of Texas Medical Center, the world’s largest medical center.
These and other partnerships with groups such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, governments, academic institutions, scientists, medical professionals, and non-profit organizations are critical in furthering the development of strategies to reduce human suffering from devastating vaccine preventable and neglected tropical diseases.
About END7
END7 is an international advocacy campaign that seeks to raise the awareness and funding necessary to control and eliminate the seven most common neglected tropical diseases by 2020. The international effort to control and eliminate NTDs has the support of a diverse group of global partners, including the World Health Organization (WHO), national governments, pharmaceutical companies, corporations and individuals. END7 is run by the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, an initiative of the Sabin Vaccine Institute.
About NTDs
NTDs are a group of 17 parasitic and bacterial infections that are the most common afflictions of the world’s poorest people. They blind, disable and disfigure their victims, trapping them in a cycle of poverty and disease. Research shows that treating NTDs lifts millions out of poverty by ensuring that children stay in school to learn and prosper; by strengthening worker productivity; and by improving maternal and child health.
In the global fight for the control and elimination of the world’s most devastating and debilitating diseases that affects over a billion people, one organization, the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases has since emerged as a leading light in this noble venture.
Dr Neeraj Mistry, Managing Director, Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases/Photo: Agbelessessy/ANA
An initiative of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, it envisioned a world free of NTDs where the entire community, particularly, children, are able to grow, have access to education that will eventually enable them make meaningful contributions to their communities.
To get an insight into the Global Networks views on the state of NTDs in the aftermath of the release of the 2nd WHO (World Health Organization) Report on NTDs, Dr Neeraj Mistry, the Managing Director, told AfricaNewsAnalysis (ANA) in an exclusive telephone interview that January 2013 was “a really important month in the NTD movement.”
He observed that “there was the release of the 2nd NTD Report from WHO, there was also a release of the Report of the London Declaration on NTDs which was all the partners that are sort of working towards a common goal to reach the elimination targets of 2020.
“And this is all based on the analysis contained in the WHO Report which was also a year ago when the WHO released a Road Map to tackle NTDs.”
Dr Mistry described the positive developments as “a significant progress on NTDs and its done in a very cost-effective way, it’s done in partnership with, as a public private partnership, with the drug companies who are donating the drugs and assistance from WHO in creating the policies and programme guidelines and which countries are adhering to, the technical assistance from the NGO partners who are involved in countries working with governments which are actually executing the programmes.”
He observed that “things are going well,” adding that “there is global momentum.”
On what needs to be done to actually meet the 2020 elimination targets, Dr Mistry stressed the need to “keep the pressure up and accelerate the response in order to meet those targets.”
Asked how he intend to keep up the pressure, Dr Mistry had this to say:
“So this is where we actually have to bring new partners into the NTD response. For example, the largest contributors of NTD are the US and UK governments and what we need to do is actually bring more countries co-opted from the G20 and the wealthier nations to actually contribute to that. The second thing is we have about 15 countries around the world now they have endemic countries; countries endemic with NTDs that have national integrated plans for NTD control. This is an excellent step and we have to ensure that these aren’t just plans in the Ministry of Health but they are actually being executed upon. And many countries are on the path to launching these plans and implementing these programmes but we’ve got to make sure that they actually make these things happen and working together with that. And the third element is that we’ve got to ensure that the drug donations and commitments that have been made by the pharmaceutical companies are actually not sitting in warehouses but they’re getting to the mouths of the patients. So we’ve got to make sure that the supply chains and delivery of these drugs is actually working.
How are you going to ensure that governments sustain their work in prevention and control of NTDs?
The policies are in place, the drug supplies are there, the technical assistance is there but the pressure comes from general society and that is why we launched the PSA (Public Service Announcement), for the N7 campaign with the celebrities. And these work on two levels. One, in the donor countries like the US, the UK and Europe, this will help to raise awareness to NTDs as a global health and development priority that would address needs of the poorest billion people in the world and so that’s why the tax payers in the wealthier countries can put pressure on their governments to continue the commitment and actually put new resources into NTD control.”
Dr Mistry said “the PSA is to actually raise awareness among the general populations of endemic countries so they can put pressure on their governments to actually implement these programmes. And I think that the opportunities we have is that the PSA campaign is a social media campaign and we’re all aware now that across Africa, mobile connectivity is at an all-time high and the use of social media is also on the increase. So we want to start creating the tools like with the PSA that will actually help raise awareness across Africa for example of NTDs that will actually hold governments accountable for these programme.
Speaking on the impacts of NTDs on the socio-economic development of endemic countries, the Global Network’s Managing Director had this to say: “this is one of the most important motivating factors for governments to institute policies and bilateral donor programmes for NTDs. In January this year something else has happened when we held a panel in Washington DC for the launch of the Hudson Review on the ‘Socio-economic impact of NTDs’. And a lot of information is contained in that. Let me just give you an example, there was a study done by Michael Kremer that showed following children for 20 years into adulthood and those adults who have higher rates of economic return and productivity where actually de-wormed as children when compared to those adults who were not de-wormed as children. And so that justified the socio-economic return on investment just from de-worming. But further to that, and what we call positive externalities of interventions, we’re finding that increase school attendance, there’s better improvement in cognitive developments in children. The level of energy from addressing things like anemia and malnutrition when de-worming and treatment of NTDs is done is really, really high. The responsiveness and effectiveness of routine immunizations for measles is also improved. And so we’re finding that the impacts are far-reaching. We have demonstrated high impact on something like economic productivity in the long run and that in itself makes the case. But furthermore we find that there is even exponential impact through the broader societal impact that NTDs have on education, nutrition, general well-being and energy and economic productivity.
Asked to comment on the assertion that prevention and control of NTDs will contribute to the attainment of several MDGs. Dr Mistry said: “Absolutely, and I thing that in the current articulation of the MDGs, NTDs fall into the other diseases on MDGs, HIV, TB, Malaria and we feel that as we look at the post MDGs, the post 2015 architecture of how we organize what’s being called the sustainable development goal, we need to find the cross-cutting interventions and issues that actually have such broad impact on society. And we feel that NTDs because of its impact on nutrition, education, general well-being, anemia, the standards of the role of women in society , economic productivity it is one of those cross-cutting issues that touch nearly all the MDGs level intervention, upon which all our other interventions depend.
ABOUT SABIN VACCINE INSTITUTE
Sabin Vaccine Institute (Sabin) is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization made up of scientists, researchers, and advocates dedicated to reducing needless human suffering from vaccine preventable and neglected tropical diseases. Sabin works with governments, leading public and private organizations, and academic institutions to provide solutions for some of the world’s most pervasive health care challenges.
Since its founding in 1993 in honor of the oral polio vaccine developer, Dr. Albert B. Sabin, the Institute has been at the forefront of efforts to control, treat, and eliminate vaccine preventable and neglected tropical diseases by developing new vaccines, advocating use of existing vaccines, and promoting increased access to affordable medical treatments.
Sabin was founded on the legacy and global vision of one of medicine’s most pre-eminent scientific figures, Dr. Albert B. Sabin, who is best known for developing the oral live virus polio vaccine. Dr. Sabin not only dedicated his entire professional career to groundbreaking medical advancements to reduce human suffering, he also waged a tireless and lifelong campaign against poverty and ignorance.
Sabin works to provide greater access to vaccines and essential treatments for hundreds of millions of people stuck in a cycle of pain, poverty and despair. Sabin’s three main programs – Sabin Vaccine Development, the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, and Vaccine Advocacy and Education – strive to uphold Dr. Sabin’s lifelong efforts by developing preventative measures for diseases that place burdens on the world’s poorest countries.
Sabin’s diverse partnerships are key to our efforts to fulfill the organization’s mission. In 2011, the Sabin Product Development Partnership (Sabin PDP), re-located to Houston, Texas to begin a new affiliation with Texas Children’s Hospital (TCH) and Baylor College of Medicine (BCM). The Sabin PDP laboratories are housed in a new, state-of-the-art, 10,000 square-foot facility at TCH, which is part of Texas Medical Center, the world’s largest medical center.
These and other partnerships with groups such as the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, governments, academic institutions, scientists, medical professionals, and non-profit organizations are critical in furthering the development of strategies to reduce human suffering from devastating vaccine preventable and neglected tropical diseases.
Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases
The Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases (Global Network), a major program of the Sabin Vaccine Institute, is an advocacy and resource mobilization initiative dedicated to raising the awareness, political will, and funding necessary to control and eliminate the seven most common neglected tropical diseases (NTDs): soil-transmitted helminths (hookworm, ascariasis, and trichuriasis), onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, trachoma, and lymphatic filariasis. The vision of the Global Network is a world free of NTDs where children and families are able to grow, learn and become productive members of their communities. We are committed to working with governments, individuals, institutions and corporations globally to make this a reality as we end the neglect.
About END7
END7 is an international advocacy campaign that seeks to raise the awareness and funding necessary to control and eliminate the seven most common neglected tropical diseases by 2020. The international effort to control and eliminate NTDs has the support of a diverse group of global partners, including the World Health Organization (WHO), national governments, pharmaceutical companies, corporations and individuals. END7 is run by the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases, an initiative of the Sabin Vaccine Institute.
About NTDs
NTDs are a group of 17 parasitic and bacterial infections that are the most common afflictions of the world’s poorest people. They blind, disable and disfigure their victims, trapping them in a cycle of poverty and disease. Research shows that treating NTDs lifts millions out of poverty by ensuring that children stay in school to learn and prosper; by strengthening worker productivity; and by improving maternal and child health.
Tatu Msangi, a HIV-positive woman from Tanzania was still able to deliver a healthy HIV-negative baby. She named the baby FAITH. Thanks to the work of organizations such as the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation (EGPAF), Msangi was taken onboard a preventive program called PMTCT (Prevention of Mother-to-child Transmission) sponsored by the foundation.
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