UAE leads fight to free Ethiopia of parasitic disease in three years
Ethiopia could be free of a disabling parasitic infection in as little as three years with the help of a UAE-led initiative.
Reaching the Last Mile Fund has provided the country and several others with significant financial assistance to tackle neglected tropical diseases.
Fikre Seife, NTD programme leader for the Ministry of Health in Ethiopia, said the total eradication of lymphatic filariasis was now in sight within its borders.
The RLMF is a 10-year, $100 million initiative established in 2017 by Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and Deputy Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces, along with other supporters, including the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation.
It works in several countries to eliminate NTDs, focusing on river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, and is administered by the End Fund, a philanthropic investment platform focused on tackling the five most common such diseases.
Lymphatic filariasis is caused by tiny threadlike worms that live in the human lymph system. It is spread from person to person by mosquitoes.
The disease causes disfiguring swelling of tissue and elephantiasis. Sufferers are often shunned by their communities and unable to work because of their disability.
Mr Seife told The National the funding meant the country was again on track to eliminate the parasitic infection by 2027, after its efforts were disrupted by the withdrawal of aid from the UK.
“Due to the early termination of UK government aid because of budget cuts, there was a financial gap, so right now we are very lucky the Reaching the Last Mile Fund has secured funding for the coming three years,” Mr Seife said.
“There is a high chance to eliminate it.”
He was speaking at an event in Abu Dhabi yesterday to announce a $22.5m investment over the next three years in RLMF by the Leona M and Harry B Helmsley Charitable Trust.
The New York trust invests in new ideas or research in six areas: Crohn’s disease; Israel; rural health care; Type 1 diabetes; vulnerable children in Sub-Saharan Africa; and New York City.
Walter Panzirer, a trustee, said he hoped the contribution would help Ethiopia to achieve its goal of eradication sooner than 2027.
“Hopefully we will achieve total elimination of LF and river blindness in Ethiopia and the border countries that surround it,” he said.
“We expect this to be about a three-year time frame, so we are very ambitious. Collaboration is key.”
In December, it was announced that Niger would be the first country in Africa to eradicate river blindness after it completed the necessary evaluations to certify the elimination of the disease.
The country said it was preparing the paperwork for World Health Organisation verification.
In January last year, the WHO unveiled a programme to tackle 20 diseases by 2030.
It aims for a 90 per cent reduction in the number of people requiring treatment for NTDs. It also wants at least 100 countries to have eliminated at least one disease.
The UN health body wants to eradicate two diseases, guinea worm, also known as dracunculiasis, and yaws.
It aims to reduce deaths from vector-borne NTDs such as dengue by 75 per cent.
The WHO’s plan aims for renewed momentum for the delivery of interventions in the poorest countries.
“If we are to end the scourge of neglected tropical diseases, we urgently need to do things differently,” WHO director general Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said.
“This means injecting new energy into our efforts and working together in new ways to get prevention and treatment for all these diseases, to everyone who needs it.”