WHO, SANOFI-AVENTIS RENEW FIGHT AGAINST TROPICAL DISEASES

The World Health Organization (WHO) announced it is expanding its program to fight neglected tropical diseases in Africa. This expansion is possible thanks to a renewed collaboration with sanofi-aventis, which has agreed to donate medicines and financial support worth $25 million over five years.

This collaboration builds on a previous agreement between the WHO and the company to prevent deaths in Africa due to sleeping sickness. During the five-year project sanofi-aventis' contribution of $25 million made it possible to distribute free drugs, including pentamidine, melasorprol and eflornithine. Approximately 14 million people were screened for the disease, and 1 million injectable doses were distributed by Médecins sans Frontières. Nearly 110,000 lives were saved as a result. Following the project, the African Union declared in 2005 that eliminating sleeping sickness from the list of major public health problems is now a realistic objective.

Under the new agreement, sanofi-aventis will donate $5 million of drugs to treat sleeping sickness and a further $20 million for the control of other neglected tropical diseases, including leishmaniasis and Buruli ulcer, which are common in Africa.

The new project will take a similar approach to detecting, preventing and treating these diseases. The key is to actively seek out people who show early symptoms of the diseases, according to the WHO. By identifying them early, people can be given effective treatment before the symptoms worsen.