Fighting Disease: Nigeria

Eliminating Lymphatic Filariasis

Lymphatic filariasis is a debilitating and deforming disease caused by infection from a parasitic worm called Wuchereria bancrofti that lives in the victim's lymphatic system. The World Health Organization ranks lymphatic filariasis as a leading cause of permanent and long-term disability worldwide.  Annual, communitywide health education and treatment with the medicines Mectizan® and albendazole reduce or eliminate transmission of the parasite, thus saving a new generation from the fate of many of their parents and grandparents. Learn more about the Carter Center's Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Program >

Nigeria is the third most endemic country in the world for lymphatic filariasis, with an estimated 25 million people infected (22 percent of the population). The disease is widespread in Carter Center-assisted program areas of Plateau and Nasarawa states, and mass treatment and health education are necessary in all cities and villages in the local government areas (LGAs).

At the invitation of the federal Ministry of Health of Nigeria and the state ministries of health, The Carter Center helped establish a Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Program in 1998 in Plateau and Nasarawa states. Since then, The Carter Center, GlaxoSmithKline, and Merck have been working to fight lymphatic filariasis, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

The Center uses the same community-based distribution strategies it helped pioneer for fighting river blindness on the continent and is using the same volunteers and logistics in place to eliminate the disease as a health problem in the two states as soon as possible.

Health education messages are aired on the radio in Hausa and English, as is a television documentary as part of the program's efforts to educate the population about the disease.

In 2009, the program in Nigeria experienced a major breakthrough when transmission of lymphatic filariasis was halted in 10 of the 30 LGAs where the Center works.This important achievement demonstrated that elimination is possible in the nation, although there are still areas where transmission has not been broken.

In 2010, the federal Ministry of Health approved lymphatic filariasis treatment cessation in five local government areas that had stopped the disease's transmission on the condition that long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) were distributed first to prevent the disease's re-emergence (Langtang South, Jos North, and Barkin Ladi in Plateau state, and Keffi and Keana in Nasarawa state).

As a result, during 2010, some 2.3 million LLINs were distributed throughout Plateau and Nasarawa states covering every household and allowing for treatment to be stopped in those LGAs that same year.

A total of 3,213,244 persons in Plateau and Nasarawa states received health education and mass treatment for lymphatic filariasis in 2010.

The Carter Center's activities in Plateau and Nasarawa states are unique. Using an integrated approach, the Center has targeted three diseases that can be controlled by communitywide treatment: onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis, and schistosomiasis. This approach makes it possible to provide medicine distribution and health education for more than one disease using the same program structure, resulting in an operational cost savings of 41 percent over the stand-alone distributions.

As a result of the program's interventions, many Nigerians are being protected from contracting lymphatic filariasis, and those seriously infected with the crippling disease are learning how to better care for themselves.

Read the National Public Radio story: Learning To Live With a Disfiguring Disease (PDF) >

Read the Real Lives, Real Change feature: Group Brings Hope to Nigerians Disfigured by Swollen Limbs >

Learn more about the Carter Center's Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Program in Nigeria  (in search result format) >