USAID PUTS $100 MILLION TOWARD TROPICAL DISEASES

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has announced a $100 million award to the nonprofit research organization RTI International to reduce the impact of tropical diseases in developing nations, including those in Africa.

The project, which will treat more than 40 million people for five years, represents one of the first large-scale efforts to integrate existing disease-specific treatment programs to care for millions of the world's poorest people. The project will build on the success of those programs, bringing them to national scale and enhancing their effectiveness and efficiency by integrating treatment, monitoring and evaluation programs.

The program will focus on controlling seven of the most prevalent neglected tropical diseases: trachoma (blinding eye infection), hookworm, ascaris, trichuris (three soil-transmitted worms), onchocerciasis (river blindness), schistosomiasis (snail fever) and lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis). These particular diseases were chosen because they cause a tremendous disease burden and can be treated through large-scale integrated programs using safe and effective drugs made available through public-private partnerships.