Country ProgrammesInitial Control ProgrammesWith the support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, SCI was established to support sub-Saharan African countries in their national control programmes on schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis. Since 2002, SCI has been working with the Ministries of Health in Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia to establish sustainable national programmes for the control of these diseases. In each country SCI played a significant role in identifying the regions/districts with heavy infections, drawing up the programme plan, providing appropriate health education, and providing advice and assistance in the procurement of the required drugs. SCI also identified local and international partners to provide training, and then support the delivery of the drugs. As the programme progresses, SCI has been monitoring the effectiveness of the programme in each country to demonstrate the impact that treatment can achieve - in particular by recording the reduction in numbers of people with heavy infections, the alleviation of symptoms, and improvement in nutritional status.
By 2007, a total of over 43 million school-aged children and population at high risk have received treatment in six countries. Integrated Control ProgrammesWith the global outcry for the control of the neglected tropical diseases and availability of a rapid integrated package for five of the neglected tropical diseases (schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis and trachoma), SCI has extended and transformed its original programme into an integrated control programme. The above five NTDs are now targeted in the SCI programme countries using an integrated drug delivery strategy according to the WHO preventive chemotherapy guidelines, with the support from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, USAID, Geneva Global and other donors and in collaboration with other partners.
Apart from the countries receiving
direct support, SCI also assists other interested sub-Saharan African countries
to develop their national control plans, and takes other steps to deliver the
drug to severely infected people, for example, in Cameroon, Mozambique, and
Kenya. SCI is actively seeking further funding to expand its programme further
to other sub-Saharan countries where millions of school-aged children are still
suffering from the consequences of neglected tropical diseases. |
