Neglected tropical diseases get $46.7M

Five grants totalling $46.7 million have been awarded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to support campaigns against neglected tropical diseases. In a statement, the fund said that "the grants will support efforts to coordinate and integrate programs to fight key neglected diseases in developing countries."

In Africa, about 500 million people are estimated to suffer from an NTD, such as trachoma or hookworm. The object of the Gates Foundation grants will be to attempt to demonstrate that controlling NTDs through an integrated way is more effective than the existing disease-specific strategies in place. According to the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Disease Control, a coordinating group that includes several non-governmental agencies, existing donations by drugmakers has ensured that the cost of delivering doses of four key drugs to treat patients is as low as $0.50 (Marketletter September 18, 2006).

The five diseases which the Gates Foundation grants aim to counter are trachoma (blinding eye infection), soil-transmitted helminths (hookworm, ascaris and trichuris), onchocerciasis (river blindness), schistosomiasis (snail fever) and lymphatic filariasis (elephantisis). Single doses of the necessary drugs given once or twice a year are considered sufficient to considerably reduce the burden of the NTDs.