Lymphatic
Filariasis
 Lymphatic
filariasis, a parasitic disease transmitted by mosquitoes,
is a leading cause of permanent and long-term disability.
In its severest form, lymphatic filariasis leads
to elephantiasis — a crippling condition in
which limbs or other parts of the body are grotesquely
swollen or enlarged. In communities endemic with
lymphatic filariasis, as many as 10 percent of women
can be affected with swollen limbs and 50 percent
of men can suffer from mutilating genital disease.
These conditions have a devastating effect on the
quality of life of those affected, impacting them
not only physically but also emotionally and economically.
In a collaborative effort, The Carter Center and
its partners are working to show that the transmission
of lymphatic filariasis can be interrupted on a
large scale in Nigeria with mass community drug
treatment and health education. In 2005, more than
3 million people were treated to prevent lymphatic
filariasis in the two Nigerian states of Plateau
and Nasarawa — a remarkable 92 percent of
the eligible population.
Eliminating
Lymphatic Filariasis
Lymphatic filariasis is one of six diseases the
Carter Center's International Task Force for Disease
Eradication determined could be eradicated using
current tools and technologies (Read the ITFDE summary
[PDF]). In 1997, the World Health Assembly, the
directing body of the World Health Organization,
called for the global elimination of lymphatic filariasis
as a public health problem.
The strategy for elimination is based on treating
everyone eligible to take the medicine living in
an affected community with a dose of two drugs:
ivermectin (Mectizan®, donated by Merck &
Co., Inc.) and albendazole (donated by GlaxoSmithKline)
in sub-Saharan Africa or diethylcarbamazine and
albendazole elsewhere.
Integrating Treatment
The Carter Center's Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination
Program is based on the same community education
and drug distribution system as the Center's River
Blindness Program. In fact, the drug Mectizan, which
is used in combination with albendazole to prevent
transmission of lymphatic filariasis, is the same
drug used worldwide to prevent transmission of river
blindness. After years of success distributing Mectizan
for river blindness in Nigeria, the Center began
a pilot project to determine the feasibility of
adding albendazole to the treatment regimen in communities
where both river blindness and lymphatic filariasis
are endemic.
Partnering
for Support
Elimination of lymphatic filariasis is only possible
through collaboration with multiple organizations
and agencies. Carter Center partners include the
Nigeria Ministry of Health and the ministries of
health in Plateau and Nasarawa states, as well as
the Emory University Lymphatic Filariasis Support
Center, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Merck,
and GlaxoSmithKline. Most of all, through committed
community action, Nigerians themselves are freeing
their families and friends from the misery of lymphatic
filariasis.
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