The Schistosomiasis Control Initiative Family is ExpandingFor almost five years, the SCI has worked towards relieving the population of six sub-Saharan African countries from the debilitating and life-threatening symptoms of schistosomiasis and intestinal worms. Funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation ends later this year but the SCI will use the experience it has gained to assist more countries with their control of neglected tropical diseases. During 2007, the SCI developed a very fruitful partnership with the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Disease Control which was very recently awarded a generous grant of $8.9 Million from Geneva Global Inc. This grant is to fund a rapid-impact treatment programme in Rwanda and Burundi, concentrating on onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis and intestinal helminths. Surveys for trachoma and filariasis will also be carried out in both countries. The addition of these countries to the list of those receiving support from SCI is only one of the new dimensions brought by this project. On a second and very significant level, the Rwanda-Burundi, Uganda, Niger and Burkina Faso programmes will not be limited to treating only schistosomiasis. Instead they will expand their remit to integrating the control or elimination of seven neglected tropical diseases, namely trachoma, onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis, three soil-transmitted helminthiases as well as schistosomiasis. These easily treatable diseases continue to afflict more than one billion of the poorest people, preventing them from performing their normal daily duties and compounding their poverty. The SCI has recruited a new manager for the Rwanda and Burundi programmes, Dr Marie-Alice Deville. Originally from France, Marie-Alice came to England four years ago and has worked as a post-doctoral researcher in the Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine at the University of Oxford. Another new member of the administrative team is Nick Baldry who will be assisting Kieran Bird with the accounts, especially those to be claimed from USAID. Nick is a graduate of Newcastle University, and a keen football player who has already played for DIDE against London School of Hygiene. |