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Drug distribution key to African health progress

03/10/2008

A "public health revolution" in west Africa which has already seen 20 million people receive treatment for neglected diseases has been hailed by a medical expert.

The first stage of a major campaign to address diseases which together cause as much suffering as HIV, tuberculosis and malaria has just been completed.

Bilharzia (schistosomiasis), lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis), river blindness and trachoma are among the diseases for which drugs have been distributed across Ghana, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso and Sierra Leone.

Treatments for these diseases are relatively cheap and so distribution is the main challenge. The campaign has recruited ordinary people – farmers and teachers – to distribute the drugs in rural areas, meaning they are reaching many for the first time.

"This has started a public health revolution in west Africa, moving from individual programmes to integrated control," Professor Alan Fenwick, director of the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI) at Imperial College London, said.

"These diseases should soon be part of history ¬we have the drugs to treat them, many donated free by the pharmaceutical companies. The key has been to work with health services throughout west Africa to mobilise and train local people to distribute the drugs."

Experts from Imperial College London believe addressing these neglected tropical diseases will tackle 25 per cent of the total disease burden in Africa.