Neglected Tropical Disease NGDO Network Members
NTD NGDO Network Members
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The Carter Center: The Carter Center's River Blindness Program assists ministries of health to eliminate river blindness in the six countries in the Americas: Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Venezuela through the special Onchocerciasis Elimination Program of the Americas and to control river blindness in five African countries: Cameroon, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Sudan, and Uganda. The Carter Center is also working in Nigeria to show that the transmission of lymphatic filariasis can be interrupted on a large scale with mass community drug treatment and health education. In 2007, 3.4 million treatments were distributed for LF in the two Nigerian states of Plateau and Nasarawa — a remarkable 93 percent of the eligible population. The Carter Center's LF Elimination Program is based on the same community education and drug distribution system as the River Blindness Program.
Charitable Society for Social Welfare (CSSW): CSSW began its onchocerciasis control activities in Yemen in 2001 and has rapidly expanded its efforts to cover 86 communities in 5 governorates (Almahweet, Hoddeidah, Hajja, Sana'a, and Raimah) in the western region of the country. The organization's objectives are to raise health awareness on disease prevention measures and to achieve community participation in onchocerciasis disease control. More specifically, CSSW aims to reduce the rate of infection by onchocerciasis to less than 5% until the disease is eliminated in targeted areas.
Christoffel-Blindenmission (CBM): Christoffel Blindenmission is an international development agency for people with disabilities. CBM implements mass drug administration in Africa in areas where LF and oncho coexist and works on morbidity management activities through community-based rehabilitation.
Handicap International (HI): Handicap International specializes in the field of disability with an aim to improve the capacity of disabled people to satisfy their basic needs and to exercise their fundamental rights. HI has been a member of the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis since 2001 with a focus on improving the lives of people with advanced stages of LF. As of 2006, HI provides technical and financial support for hydrocoelectomy and lymphoedema management in Burkina Faso and Madagascar through community mobilization and reinforcement of the local health systems. In addition, HI has provided technical support and capacity building in Orissa State, India.
Health and Development International (HDI): Health & Development International's involvement with LF Elimination had a worldwide focus from the start, helping stimulate the beginning of the global effort, combined with support for getting activities started in Anglophone and Francophone Africa, specifically, Ghana and Togo. HDI created and leads The West African LF Morbidity Project to train surgeons in 12 West African countries in new, more effective, safer surgical techniques for men who have fluid in the scrotum due to the disease.
Helen Keller International (HKI): Helen Keller International provides technical and financial assistance to establish eye health and nutrition programs in partnership with host countries. HKI currently supports onchocerciasis (CDTI) programs in 7 countries with LF and onchocerciasis activities integrated in Burkina Faso and planned in several other countries. Other integration initiatives include vitamin A supplementation and screening and referral of cataract patients. HKI focuses on capacity building, developing information, education and communication strategies and materials, and effective monitoring and evaluation in all country programs it supports and has provided technical assistance to many other countries in Africa as well.
IMA World Health: Interchurch Medical Assistance (IMA) has been supporting onchocerciasis control in Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. It has been supporting LF control and morbidity management in Haiti, Ghana, Tanzania, Burkina Faso, and India.
International Trachoma Initiative (ITI): The International Trachoma Initiative envisions a world free of blinding trachoma. ITI's mission is to eliminate blinding trachoma by 2020 through managing the Zithromax donation and collaborating with partners for the implementation of the full SAFE strategy. ITI approaches its mission through three key roles: Management of the supply and distribution of Zithromax donated by Pfizer, advocate at the global, regional, and country levels for the elimination of blinding trachoma
and key partner in collecting data and managing knowledge on trachoma.
LEPRA: Since 2004, LEPRA has applied its vast experience working with both governments and communities to address poverty related diseases, including the prevention of LF in Bangladesh. LEPRA has enabled the government of Bangladesh to effectively distribute a single dose, once yearly, two-drug regimen: albendazole with either ivermectin or diethylcarbamazine to 13,707,000 people. LEPRA also conducts community mobilization, training programs, advocacy, and IEC campaigns. LEPRA has since expanded its activities to include LF prevention in Orissa, India and plans to further strengthen the community and government response for morbidity management in both India and Bangladesh.
Light for the World: Light for the World is an Austrian NGDO focusing on the prevention of blindness and rehabilitation of people with disability. In the field of onchocerciasis control, support is provided to two Community Directed Treatment with Ivermectin (CDTI) projects in Ethiopia through technical expertise in training and supervision, community mobilization, and capacity building, as well as financial and logistical assistance.
Lions Clubs International Foundation (LCIF): Lions Clubs International Foundation is the charitable arm of Lions Clubs International, the world's largest service club organization. Through its SightFirst program, LCIF has funded projects that have provided over 80 million Mectizan treatments to people in Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of Zaire, Ethiopia, Guinea, Nigeria, Senegal, Uganda, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, and Venezuela.
Malaria Consortium: Malaria Consortium began work on NTD control in 2005. The organization has conducted situational analyses and reviewed possible interventions for NTD control in a number of African countries. At present it is working with the governments of Ethiopia, Uganda and Mozambique and the Southern Sudan administration, on aspects of their NTD programs. For example, Malaria Consortium is supporting implementation of large-scale surveys in Southern Sudan and Ethiopia to establish which populations are suffering from NTDs, and deliver treatment and other interventions to those communities that urgently need them.
Mectizan Donation Program (MDP): The Mectizan Donation Program was established in 1987 to oversee Merck & Co., Inc.'s donation of Mectizan for the control of onchocerciasis worldwide. In 1998, Merck expanded the mandate of the program to include lymphatic filariasis elimination through the co-administration of Mectizan and albendazole, donated by GlaxoSmithKline, in African countries and Yemen where lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis are co-endemic.
Mission to Save the Helpless (MITOSATH): Mission to Save the Helpless began its support for onchocerciasis control in 1996 with about 22,000 treatments, which expanded over the years to about 936,000 treatments in 2005. In addition, MITOSATH also supports micronutrient deficiency through vitamin A and iron-folate supplementation and nutrition education. MITOSATH also supports community-based rehabilitation.
Operation Eyesight: In combating trachoma, Operation Eyesight endorses what is called the SAFE strategy. This consists of: surgery (S) for advanced cases; antibiotics (A) to halt the infection before surgery is required; facial cleanliness (F) to avoid infection in the first place; and environmental changes (E) that address the flies that carry the disease and the conditions that allow them to flourish.
Organisation pour la Prévention de la Cécité (OPC): The Organisation pour la Prévention de la Cécité works to support the prevention of blindness in France and in developing countries. OPC's activities include prevention and treatment of ocular morbidity and in France OPC also collaborates with rehabilitative centers for people with low vision. OPC provides technical and financial support to many Francophone countries around the world, including combating onchocerciasis and trachoma and providing cataract surgery and primary care.
Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI): The SCI aims to control or eliminate the seven most prevalent NTDs (soil-transmitted helminths (STH-ascariasis, hookworm infection, trichuriasis), lymphatic filariasis (LF), onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, and trachoma) from sub-Saharan Africa. SCI assists Ministries of Health in sub-Saharan African countries to develop and expand their existing NTD control programs through an integrated approach to mass drug administration, which provides the Ministries of Health an affordable and realistic means available by which to achieve their goal to reduce the prevalence of these diseases in their endemic areas to a level where they no longer represent a public health burden. Since 2002 the SCI has been working with governments towards treating and protecting the populations of sub-Saharan African countries from the debilitating and life-threatening consequences of NTDs.
Sightsavers International (SSI): Sightsavers International is a founding member of Vision 2020 and has over 50 years experience in prevention of blindness, supporting onchocerciasis control for 15 years. In 2005, 13 million people in African countries were treated with Sightsaver's support and recently, Sightsavers has approved support for mass drug administration for LF where the disease is co-endemic with onchocerciasis.
United Front Against Riverblindness (UFAR): The United Front Against River Blindness is an African-inspired, US-based nonprofit organization whose mission is to participate, in partnership with other organizations, in the fight against onchocerciasis, commonly known as river blindness, in the Democratic Republic of Congo where the disease is a major public health problem.
US Fund for UNICEF: The U.S. Fund for UNICEF's support for onchocerciasis control in Nigeria began in 1991. The organization is assisting the Nigerian Federal Ministry of Health in the control of Onchocerciasis in nine states; namely Bauchi, Benue, Cross River, Ekiti, Gombe, Niger, Ondo, Osun and Oyo.
World Vision: World Vision supports the control and elimination of the major Neglected Tropical Diseases- STH, LF, Schistosomiasis, Foodborne Trematodes, Trachoma and Onchocerciasis- broadly through their global Maternal Child Health and Nutrition (MCHN) and Water Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) programs. World Vision also partners with the Ministries of Health and World Health Organisation (WHO) in country and regionally to address resource gaps in specific NTD country programs by supporting Mass Drug Administrations through donations of anthelminthics, health workforce capacity building, mobilization of communities and carrying out monitoring and evaluation.
Associate Members
Merck & Co. Inc.: Merck donates Mectizan for the elimination of river blindness worldwide and for the elimination of LF in Yemen and in African countries where the two diseases are co-endemic.
Liverpool Centre for NTDs: recognizing that 'neglected tropical diseases' are significant poverty promoting condition and high on the global public health priority agenda central to achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) has expanded the activities of the Lymphatic Filariasis Support Centre to become the Centre for Neglected Tropical Diseases. The expansion acknowledges the Centre's expertise to work on other NTDs.
International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB): IAPB was established as a coordinating, umbrella organization to lead an international effort in mobilizing resources for blindness prevention activities. IAPB aspired to link professional bodies, non-governmental organizations (NGOs), educational institutions and interested individuals with national programs for the prevention of blindness. IAPB helped establish the WHO Prevention of Blindness and Visual Impairment team; the two organizations work together on blindness prevention activities.