Children Without Worms - Quarterly Dose

Letter from the Director: April 2012

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:21:41 GMT

CWW's new Director, Dr. David Addiss, introduces us to this month's issue of the Quarterly Dose and the exciting future of STH control.

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GSK and CWW Partnership Announcement

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:15:34 GMT

Children Without Worms (CWW) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) recently announced their formal partnership. Now, with commitments for donations from GSK and CWW founder Johnson & Johnson, a combined 600 million doses of deworming medications will be available each year to treat school-age children around the world who are at risk for soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infection. Plus, at the London Declaration on NTDs in late January, both companies pledged to extend these commitments through 2020.

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Engaging the Education Sector in STH Control

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 20:07:00 GMT

Health programs aimed at children are increasingly relying on the infrastructure and personnel at schools to carry out simple health interventions like deworming and hygiene education. This makes sense because teachers are often the most informed people to determine the best time of year to carry out mass drug administration campaigns and the types of messages that resound with students of various ages. At CWW, we recognize the enormous contributions the education sector can make to STH control efforts. For this reason, we examine ways to collaborate and strengthen partnerships with Ministries of Education and their equivalents in our program countries. CWW has additional plans for building bridges with the education sector in the coming years.

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Bolivia Launches Pilot Program for Deworming

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 19:36:44 GMT

In 2011, Izumi Foundation awarded CWW a grant to help Bolivia's Ministry of Health and Sport (MSyD) develop and implement an STH control pilot project. The Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) was asked to participate in the project due to their success with a similar project done in 2008 to address fasciola infection. The STH control project, designed around the assumption that infection rates strongly relate to the ecological conditions of an area, will start by mapping "ecoregions." Then they will use the approach used by the fasciola project to demonstrate proof of concept in three different communities. Ultimately, the success of the project could lead to a longer-term commitment to STH control in Bolivia.

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New Leadership and Opportunities for CWW

Tue, 24 Apr 2012 07:42:52 GMT

This past October, the STH Advisory Committee, formerly the Mebendazole Advisory Committee, convened its 7th annual meeting in Geneva. The meeting provided an opportunity for CWW and its partners in STH control to come together to focus on several important goals. First, to develop strategies that will enable countries to successfully use the combined 600 million doses of deworming drugs that Johnson & Johnson (J&J) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) will donate annually. Second, to explore CWW’s role in supporting a comprehensive control strategy for STH through engagement with the water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and education sectors. A highlight at the meeting’s close was recognition of the accomplishments of outgoing committee chair Mr. Ibrahim Jabr, and welcoming of incoming chair Dr. Susan Zimicki.

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Letter from the Director: December 2011

Wed, 14 Dec 2011 17:41:03 GMT

In this edition of the Quarterly Dose, I am pleased to welcome our new Director, Dr. David Addiss. We also have new leadership of the former Mebendazole Advisory Committee (MAC), which is now the STH Advisory Committee. Plus, we welcome several of our new recipient countries. And finally, we include recommendations from the recent NGDO NTD Network meeting on how non-governmental development organizations (NGDOs) and Ministries of Health and Education can collaborate effectively for NTD control.

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CWW Welcomes New Director, Dr. David Addiss, MD, MPH

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:39:47 GMT

Children Without Worms (CWW) recently welcomed Dr. David Addiss, MD, MPH, as its new Director. Dr. Addiss, who possesses a strong background working in neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), joins the program at an exciting time for CWW and for control of soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH) as a public health problem. CWW has received commitments for scaled up donations of mebendazole from Johnson & Johnson and albendazole from GlaxoSmithKline, new countries have been invited to receive these donations, and the STH Control Committee has also welcomed new leadership.

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Expanding the Deworming Programme in Nigeria

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 21:59:11 GMT

This year many countries applied to be recipients of the mebendazole donated by Johnson & Johnson and the albendazole donated by GlaxoSmithKline. As a result, CWW is now working with new government representatives from the countries that successfully applied for the donations. One of these countries was Nigeria. Dr. Nebe Obiageli of Nigeria’s National Schistosomiasis and STH Control Programme explains why the programme applied for the mebendazole donation and how it intends to use the deworming medication to further Nigeria’s STH control efforts.

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Cassandra Holloway: Coordinating Supply Logistics for CWW

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:05:54 GMT

Cassandra Holloway joined CWW this past February and took on a critical role for the program—ensuring that the donations of mebendazole reach recipient countries in time for scheduled mass drug administration campaigns (MDAs). Logistics coordination has become increasingly important as new recipient countries join the program and the number of donated doses increases. Fortunately, Cassandra’s ability to see the big picture along with her data management skills have helped CWW address the program’s growing demands in this area.

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Toward More Effective Collaboration between Ministries and NGDOs

Tue, 13 Dec 2011 22:10:27 GMT

In October, the Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) Non-governmental Development Organization (NGDO) Network held their annual meeting in Nairobi Kenya. At that meeting, a variety of government ministry officials and representatives from NGDOs held a panel discussion on how these two groups can better collaborate on their efforts to control NTDs such as lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH) and trachoma. (Pictured Left: Eye clinic in Vietnam to treat trichiasis. Photo Credit: Mark Tuschman and the International Trachoma Initiative)

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