Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Program – In the News

Oct. 22, 2012
An Amazing Tale of Three Men and a Miracle Drug Changing Lives of Millions
Published by the Saporta Report.
Three amazing men sat on the same stage to tell an amazing tale of how they led the fight to get rid of one of the most debilitating human diseases — river blindness. The occasion was the 25th anniversary of the Mectizan Donation Project, and the location was the Carter Center — the site where it all came together in 1987.

April 19, 2012
Mosquito-borne Diseases Under Attack in Haiti, Dominican Republic
Published April 19, 2012, in the Emory Report.
Efforts to eliminate two mosquito-borne diseases – malaria and lymphatic filariasis – in Haiti and the Dominican Republic are ongoing, with the first of four meetings on the issue this year held in Santo Domingo in March.

Aug. 5, 2011
Meeting of the International Task Force for Disease Eradication, April 2011/Réunion du Groupe spécial international pour l'éradication des maladies, avril 2011 (PDF)
Published in the Aug. 5, 2011 issue of the World Health Organization's Weekly Epidemiological Record.
The 18th meeting of the International Task Force for Disease Eradication was convened at the Carter Center, Atlanta, GA, United States, on 6 April 2011, to discuss the control and possible elimination of onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis in Africa.

May 14, 2010
Elimination Meets Reality in Hispaniola (PDF)
This article was published May 14, 2010, by Science magazine.
There is absolutely no reason for malaria to persist on the island of Hispaniola, says Donald Hopkins, longtime disease fi ghter and vice president for health programs at the Carter Center in Atlanta. All the other islands in the Caribbean have rid themselves of this mosquito-borne disease. And the Dominican Republic (D.R.), which shares the island with Haiti, has driven cases to remarkably low levels. Related: Watch the video – Two Countries, Two Diseases, One Island >

May 14, 2010
Shrinking the Malaria Map From the Outside In (PDF)
This article was published May 14, 2010, by Science magazine.
Richard Feachem wants to "shrink the malaria map." By that, he and his Global Health Group at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), mean wiping out malaria at its "natural margins"—those countries on the edge of malaria transmission where the disease has just a tentative foothold—and working inward. It's going for the "low-hanging fruit," he says. "It's a no-brainer."

March 30, 2010
A Project for Haiti: The Eradication of Two Diseases
This letter to the editor of the New York Times by Carter Center Vice President for Health Programs Dr. Donald R. Hopkins was published March 30, 2010, in response to the March 28, 2010 editorial "Making Haiti Whole."
Two projects that the donors conference on Haiti should consider this week are the binational plan that Haiti and the Dominican Republic announced last October to eliminate malaria by 2020, and the plan that Haiti announced simultaneously to eliminate lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis) by 2020 (the Dominican Republic expects to eliminate lymphatic filariasis this year).

Dec. 16, 2008
Haiti and Dominican Republic Urged to Fight Mosquito Illnesses Together
Published in the Dec. 16, 2008, edition of the New York Times.
The Carter Center has called for a joint effort to eliminate two mosquito-borne diseases, malaria and lymphatic filariasis, from their last foothold in the Caribbean: the island of Hispaniola.

March 17, 2007
National Public Radio: Learning to Live with a Disfiguring Disease (PDF)
A health worker who is the son of missionaries has started a support group to help people suffering from a disfiguring and painful condition called lymphatic filariasis.

March 13, 2007
National Public Radio: A Doctor's Lifelong Commitment to Fight Diseases (PDF)
Dr. Frank Richards specializes in the infectious diseases that are rampant in developing countries, especially diseases that target children.

April 9, 2006
New York Times Feature on Lymphatic Filariasis: Beyond Swollen Limbs, A Disease's Hidden Agony
"Beyond Swollen Limbs, a Disease's Hidden Agony" by Donald G. McNeil Jr. is the fourth in The New York Times "On the Brink" series of articles about five diseases — polio, Guinea worm, blinding trachoma, measles and lymphatic filariasis — that are extinct in the developed world but stubbornly persistent in some poor nations. As the diseases hover on the brink of eradication, doctors and scientists face daunting obstacles as they struggle to finish the job.

March 22, 2005
New York Times Feature: Battling Insects, Parasites and Politics (PDF)
By Donald G. McNeil, Jr., part of  the "Cases Without Borders" series, this feature article examines how mosquito netting treated with insecticide is aiding the battle against lymphatic filariasis.