SCI News During 2006
November
SCI News Update
SCI has received another grant from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
($10 million). This grant is for integration of control activities and
will be considered as co-funding to the RTI grant activities. SCI will
be needing additional staff in the new year.
October
Burkina Faso’s 3rd
Successful Deworming Week
Between the 25th of October and the 3rd of November 2006, Burkina
Faso’s national schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminth control
programme (PNLSc) successfully organized and implemented a mass
treatment campaign in the four priority regions of DRS Nord, DRS Sahel,
DRS Boucle de Mouhoun and DRS Sud-Ouest. In total, PNLSc’s 2006 mass
treatment campaign treated a total of 2,818,577 people (1,224,664
children and 1,593,913 adults) and the overall coverage rate was 93.86%.
September
Niger - Opening of National
Schistosomiasis and STH laboratory
On the 29th of September 2006 Niger’s Minister of Health, Hon
Mahamane Kabaou and the Director of SCI, Prof. Alan Fenwick officially
opened the new laboratory and office space in the presence of several
international, government and NGO representatives.
August
SCI Contribution to ICOPA XI
The 11th Annual Congress of Parasitology (ICOPA XI) was held in
Glasgow from the 6th - 11th of August 2006 and was hosted by the British
Society for Parasitology. In total, over 2000 parasitologists attended
including 300 invited speakers. Several SCI staff and partners attended
the congress and many gave presentations and/or posters throughout the
week.
SCI Pre-ICOPA Meeting in London
SCI took the opportunity of the ICOPA meeting to bring together all
the National Coordinators for a round up meeting on Wednesday August 2nd
and Thursday August 3rd. Each country made a presentation to the group
so that everyone was up to date with country progress towards the SCI
objectives, and difficulties and problems were discussed openly.
June
Third Schistosomiasis treatment on Pemba Island, Zanizbar
The Kichocho
Control Programme, coordinated on Pemba Island, Zanzibar at the Public
Health Laboratory- Ivo de Carneri, recently delivered the third annual
treatment for schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths. Praziquantel
and albendazole were distributed to all school-aged children across the
island during 19th-26th June 2006 in a school-based approach reaching
approximately 90,000 individuals.
SCI Research Committee and Advisory Board Meetings
8th June 2006: The Research Committee met in London to
consider the progress reports from grants awarded by the Schistosomiasis
Research Programme (SRP).
9th June 2006: The full SCI Advisory Board met for the
fourth time to consider progress reports and submitted budgets for the
final year of the SCI grant.
May
Training and Refresher in
Ultrasound for Diagnosis of Morbidity due to S. haematobium Infection
To ensure and refine the level of skills required by the
ultrasonographers in Mali and Niger and to correct this lack of expertise
in Burkina Faso, two experienced ultrasonographers, Dr. Adama Keita (Mali)
and Dr. Amadou Garba (Niger), agreed to supervise a refresher training
session and to offer a full training course to two newly identified
Burkinabe ultrasonographers.
February
Rapid mapping using Lot
quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) reveals impact of treatment in Uganda
The survey involved four teams which were made up of three technicians,
one of whom acted as the team leader, and one driver. The four teams were
assigned different regions of the country (Eastern, Central, Northern and
Western) with the aim of sampling 8 schools per day over 3 days per
district.
Video Documentaries on
Schistosomiasis and the Work of the SCI
Three documentaries covering the impact of schistosomiasis and the work
of the SCI have been made available via www.schisto.org
January
Strategic Financial
Management Workshop for National Coordinators, Lusaka, 22nd - 24th
January.
The SCI sponsored two ‘Strategic Financial Management’
courses in Lusaka, Zambia for nine national control programme staff members
from national schistosomiasis and STH programmes in Africa supported by the
SCI and two lymphatic filariasis programme managers.
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