Multi Country Sub Saharan Africa, 2010 -2015
More than 200 million people are infected with schistosomiasis worldwide, and many more are at risk due to poor hygiene and lack of safe water. In children, it can cause anaemia, stunted growth, and impaired learning ability. If left untreated, the symptoms escalate in adulthood and can result in liver disease and bladder cancer. An estimated 280,000 deaths every year in developing countries are attributable to schistosomiasis.
LATH is a partner in the consortium that has been awarded £25 million funding from DFID to continue its fight against neglected tropical diseases.Led by the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI) at Imperial College London with the Centre for Neglected Tropical Diseases (CNTD) at Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM), the award will provide 75 million treatments to protect some of the world’s poorest children against schistosomiasis – an illness caused by parasitic worms – and soil-transmitted helminths. £15 million of the funding will be spent directly on procuring drug treatments, through Crown Agents.
(Above) Standing brackish water habitat, often a breeding ground for halophilic mosquitoes. Photograph taken by Brent Thomas, a LATH/CNTD consultant, in the outskirts of Monrovia, Liberia in 2010.