Singing for Health!
A majority of the NTD disease burden in Latin America and the Caribbean occurs in Brazil. This week, the Brazilian Ministry of Health is launching a public health campaign to diagnose and treat soil-transmitted helminths (or intestinal parasites) and leprosy in school-aged children. Over the next few days, we will be featuring stories related to the fight against NTDs in Brazil. Songs and other innovative social mobilization tools help children learn about leprosy and other NTDs in Recife, Brazil. João just turned twelve. He lives in a one bedroom house with six family members in the outskirts of the city of Recife, in Northeastern Brazil. His mother stays at home most of the day, while his father works in a car shop around the corner. Poor hygiene and water and sanitation make João’s neig ...
NTDs in the spotlight in Foreign Policy: The Disease Next Door
They’re probably the most important diseases you’ve never heard of — causing everything from greusome limb disfigurement and skin sores to bladder and liver cancers to neurological damage — and they’re practically ubiquitous among world’s poorest people. Typically, such infections last for years or even decades, causing chronic and permanent disabilities such as stunted growth and intellectual developments in children; blindness, heart disease, and disfigurement of adults; and pregnancy complications that can result in severe disease in both newborns and their mothers. In so doing, neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) have been shown to acutally cause poverty and even destabilize communities, leading to conflict. Because they strike mostly forgotten peopl ...
Video: Eliminating “Big Foot”in Guyana
Eighteen years ago in her hometown of Georgetown, Guyana, Bernadette Seenarine came down with what at first seemed like a cold with fever. The symptoms quickly went away. Little did she know at the time that she had been infected with microfilaria, a tiny parasite that causes lymphatic filariasis, a disease commonly known as elephantiasis. In Guyana it is simply known as “big foot.” Tackling “Big Foot” from BIDtv on Vimeo. Today, Seenarine has limited mobility due to the damage the parasites have caused in her leg. Elephantiasiscauses a thickening of the skinand underlying tissues than can cause certain parts of the body to swell. She spends most of her time at her two-story home, where she operates a small grocery shop at the ground level. An estimated 68,000 people or 9 perc ...
