The Carter Center Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Program

Lymphatic filariasis, a parasitic disease transmitted by mosquitoes, is a leading cause of permanent and long-term disability. In its severest form, lymphatic filariasis leads to elephantiasis — a crippling condition in which limbs or other parts of the body are grotesquely swollen or enlarged. In communities endemic with lymphatic filariasis, as many as 10 percent of women can be affected with swollen limbs and 50 percent of men can suffer from mutilating genital disease. These conditions have a devastating effect on the quality of life of those affected, impacting them not only physically but also emotionally and economically.

In a collaborative effort, The Carter Center and its partners are working to show that the transmission of lymphatic filariasis can be interrupted on a large scale in Nigeria with mass community drug treatment and health education. In 2005, more than 3 million people were treated to prevent lymphatic filariasis in the two Nigerian states of Plateau and Nasarawa — a remarkable 92 percent of the eligible population.

Eliminating Lymphatic Filariasis
Lymphatic filariasis is one  of six diseases the Carter Center's International Task Force for Disease Eradication determined could be eradicated using current tools and technologies (Read the ITFDE summary [PDF]). In 1997, the World Health Assembly, the directing body of the World Health Organization, called for the global elimination of lymphatic filariasis as a public health problem.
 
The strategy for elimination is based on treating everyone eligible to take the medicine living in an affected community with a dose of two drugs: ivermectin (Mectizan®, donated by Merck & Co., Inc.) and albendazole (donated by GlaxoSmithKline) in sub-Saharan Africa or diethylcarbamazine and albendazole elsewhere.  
 
Integrating Treatment
The Carter Center's Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Program is based on the same community education and drug distribution system as the Center's River Blindness Program. In fact, the drug Mectizan, which is used in combination with albendazole to prevent transmission of lymphatic filariasis, is the same drug used worldwide to prevent transmission of river blindness. After years of success distributing Mectizan for river blindness in Nigeria, the Center began a pilot project to determine the feasibility of adding albendazole to the treatment regimen in communities where both river blindness and lymphatic filariasis are endemic.

Partnering for Support
Elimination of lymphatic filariasis is only possible through collaboration with multiple organizations and agencies. Carter Center partners include the Nigeria Ministry of Health and the ministries of health in Plateau and Nasarawa states, as well as the Emory University Lymphatic Filariasis Support Center, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Merck, and GlaxoSmithKline. Most of all, through committed community action, Nigerians themselves are freeing their families and friends from the misery of lymphatic filariasis.