HIGHLIGHTS
Mrs Teiti Bwenawa receives GAELF Travel Award
Mrs Teiti Bwenawa from Kiribati received the cumulative highest score and was awarded the travel grant to attend this year's ASTMH meeting in Philadelphia, USA. To read Mrs Bwenawa's story click here
7th GAELF Meeting
Provisional dates (17th-18th November 2012) have been set for the 7th GAELF meeting in Washington DC, USA.
Highlighted Programmes
2011 ASTMH Travel Award Stories
Kiribati: Morbidity Management to Improve Quality of Life in Kiribati
Tanzania: Community Participation in Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination in Tanzania Mainland
Ghana NTD Programme - Success Story to Share
The Story of the West African Filariasis Morbidity Project
Successful Programmes
• Burkina Faso
• Sri Lanka: Moving Forward Despite Disaster
Burkina Faso
With a population of 13 million, all of which live in endemic areas, the Burkina Faso LF Elimination Programme started in December 2001 has been able to ramp up quickly and treat over 10 million individuals at the end of 2005. The primary reason for the programme’s effectiveness is centered around the innovative development from Dr Dominique Kyelem (the previous programme manager) and the continued management and leadership of Dr Roland Bougma the current programme manager combined with the national comitment to eliminate LF. Under their leadership, the Elimination Programme has secured funding from local and international funders and developed partnerships with NGOs to help fulfil components of the mass drug administration and morbidity work. The government funding for the last MDA represented more than of ¾ of the total expenditure. The morbidity component is lagging behind as more funds are needed. There is a real integration with onchocerciasis control programme.
For example, the programme has received funding from both the governments of Luxemburg and the United Kingdom. After seeing this international commitment, several local companies have pledged to provide in-kind support.
Programmatically, the LF Elimination Programme in Burkina Faso is collaborating with organisations such as Helen Keller International, which provides education and training to community volunteers; the local affiliate of Save the Children/US, which is helping with social mobilisation of volunteers; Handicap International, which specialises in morbidity control; Rotary club funding hydrocelectomies; and the Norway-based Health & Development International, which is coordinating a project in all of West Africa to train local surgeons on how to perform hydrocele surgery.
Despite the support of international donors and strong local partners, it is anticipated that the Burkina Faso LF Elimination Programme will need an estimated $3.5 million over the next five years to ensure five consecutive years of mass drug administration to at least 80 percent of the endemic population. The total outstanding need is 60 percent of the budget ($2.1 million), which may decrease depending on how much partner organisations provide.
The integration approach within the NTDs is in its early stages and is believed to provide more opportunities to the LF Programme.
Sri Lanka: Moving forward despite disaster
In the wake of the killer waves of the tsunami that struck in late December 2004, neglected diseases like lymphatic filariasis (LF) face more intense challenges than ever before. In Sri Lanka, for instance, where tsunami victims lost their families, homes and livelihoods, Dr. Tilaka Liyanage, the LF programme manager, and her team are committed to moving forward with the planned mass drug administration in August 2005, particularly considering the additional health benefits and improved nutrition that result from the drugs. However, now they also must increase their vector control efforts and consider how to continue the operation of the anti-filariasis clinics in tsunami-affected areas.The combination of the upcoming monsoon season and the compromised infrastructure are expected to result in additional mosquito breeding sites and the possibility of higher rates of filariasis, malaria, and dengue transmission. In response, the Anti Filariasis Campaign and Ministry of Health plan to collaborate with the World Health Organization and other local non-profit organisations to distribute insecticide-impregnated bed nets to the affected families and to use thermal fogging as a means of vector control close to the temporary camps. Also, the team plans to make additional commitments to disability management programmes in the coastal areas to ensure that infected individuals continue to receive relief for their LF symptoms to prevent disability. With these additional identified needs, fundraising remains crucial, even as the private sector is focusing on tsunami relief efforts. Of the $137,000 budget for 2005 LF activities, including MDA and disability programmes, over $60,000 remains unfunded.