CORPORATE CITIZEN
Drug firm joins campaign vs LF
By Tina Arceo-Dumlao
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 04:42:00 12/20/2007
MANILA, Philippines -- In 39 of the 78 provinces in the Philippines, there are Filipinos silently suffering from swollen, disfigured limbs and genitals caused by lymphatic filariasis, or LF, according to information from the Department of Health.
They tend to isolate themselves -- unable to go to school or find work -- because they are ashamed of how they look like and are picked on by people ignorant of their disease. What’s more, they face the risk of permanent damage to their kidneys and lymphatic system because of the filariae.
LF is a disabling and disfiguring parasitic disease caused by thread-like filarial worms that live and breed in the human lymphatic system. The worms stay there for four to six years, causing the blockage of vessels that leads to swollen limbs and genitals.
The worms are transmitted by mosquitoes usually found in areas with abaca and banana plantations.
LF has been identified as a major global health problem since 1907, and is considered the second leading cause of long-term disability in the Philippines, after mental disease.
But LF can be stopped in its tracks and pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline is helping the Department of Health (DoH) to meet its goal of eliminating LF in the Philippines by 2010.
LF primarily affects the rural poor, with about four of five of those afflicted living in fourth to sixth class municipalities across the Philippines, mostly in Mindanao.
The DoH reports that some 650,000 Filipinos in the regions of Northern Luzon, Southern Tagalog, Bicol, Central Visayas, Eastern Visayas, Western Mindanao, Northern Mindanao, Southern Mindanao, Central Mindanao, Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao, Cordillera Administrative Region and Caraga are afflicted with the disease with 24 million more at risk.
Inadequate sanitation, stagnant water, crowding, lack of screens and bed nets in houses all contribute to the transmission of the disease.
Stepping up campaign
What the DoH is doing to eliminate LF is embark on a mass drug administration campaign, under which residents at least two years old in provinces where LF is present must take two drugs once a year for four to six straight years.
The goal is to cover at least 85 percent of residents in affected provinces for four to six years. Any less than that and the medicine and the campaign to eradicate the disease will be useless.
Sounds simple in theory, but it is infinitely more difficult in practice, explained Vicente Y. Belizario Jr., member of the faculty of the University of the Philippines in Manila and vice chair of the Coalition for the Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis in the Philippines, which is helping the DoH halt the spread of LF.
Belizario said getting people to take the drugs for four to six years was the most challenging part of the campaign that started in 2001.
Because it takes years before the disease manifests itself after a person contracts the parasitic disease, he said residents of affected areas could not see the need to undergo treatment.
And even those who do take the drugs usually fall out after one or two years, rendering the campaign ineffective. As a result, the infection will continue to be passed on from one resident to another.
“If the residents of areas where LF is present do not take the drugs for four to six years, then the campaign will be useless. There will be no end to it,” he said.
Creating awareness
But with the participation of GlaxoSmithKline in the coalition and its commitment to provide for free one of the two drugs needed to cure LF, the goal to rid the country of the debilitating disease by 2010 no longer seems too farfetched.
GSK is committed to not just provide the drug but also take part in the massive information campaign to get the residents of the 39 provinces to take the drugs to cure LF and also to convince the local government units to be part of the effort to eradicate LF in the Philippines.
GSK has already turned over 15.1 million albendazole tablets to the LF group, benefiting at least 2.9 million Filipinos, and it has committed to continue providing the drug until 2010, or until LF is officially declared eliminated.
The pharmaceutical company is optimistic that with the participation of other organizations in the vital campaign, the Philippines will win the battle against the spread of LF.
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