The Centre for Neglected Tropical Diseases (CNTD) at the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine has been awarded £10 million by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) to support endemic countries in tackling lymphatic filariasis (LF) - a crippling disease more commonly known as elephantiasis.
The funding builds on earlier successful collaborations against lymphatic filariasis and will support programmes to reduce the prevalence of LF and other related neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and make progress towards eventual elimination of LF. The award is part of a £50 million grant announced by the International Development Secretary, Douglas Alexander, to "wipe out deadly tropical diseases".
Elephantiasis is a parasitic infection that causes acute and chronic illness, disability and disfigurement in 81 countries in Asia-Pacific, Asia and the Americas. More than a billion people around the globe - 18% of the world's population - are at risk of contracting the disease. Forty million have clinical symptoms which are painful, seriously disfiguring and debilitating. LF prevents people from working and contributes to a vicious cycle of ill health and poverty.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that LF infection can be prevented by treating entire endemic communities once a year with two co-administered anti-parasitic drugs for a minimum of five years. The impact of the drugs on other NTDs also brings other health benefits such as improved physical development among children and improved maternal and newborn health. The DFID grant will enable CNTD to support 12 countries to administer these drugs to more than one quarter of a billion people at risk of LF in these countries over the next five years.
Professor Moses Bockarie, Director of CNTD, said: "We have a real opportunity here to relegate LF to the history books. Since the LF elimination programme started a decade ago it has prevented more than seven million newborns from acquiring the disease, which would have resulted in more than two million clinical cases."