Supporting Sightsavers’ Efforts to Combat Neglected Tropical Diseases 

Astellas Global Health Foundation Grant Helped Enable Treatment Campaigns for Children in Guinea-Bissau

Sightsavers, with the support of the Astellas Global Health Foundation, has been coordinating mass drug treatment campaigns that treat children in Guinea-Bissau for Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs), including infections caused by parasitic worms.

“For children living in the project areas, the risk of contracting diseases is high, especially neglected tropical diseases,” said Ercilio Evora, one of Sightsavers’ Monitoring and Evaluation Officers for NTDs in the area. “Our deworming initiative is of great importance. It prevents children from falling ill and enables them to live a healthier life and achieve their full potential.”

One of the diseases prevented through the treatment campaign is soil-transmitted helminths (STH). This disease can cause anemia and nutritional problems. It can also affect physical development, increase the risk of maternal and infant mortality and low birth weight, decrease people’s quality of life, affecting their employment, education, and happiness. Affected children may need to miss school, impacting their education and development.

In a recent STH treatment campaign, health workers held advance “sensitization” events with local parents. They informed parents that treatments would be distributed and encouraged them to allow their children to take the treatment.

This event, and others like it, were possible because of a one-year grant from the Astellas Global Health Foundation awarded to Sightsavers in 2022. The grant has helped the organization reach communities in some of the most underserved areas in Guinea Bissau, supporting efforts to reduce the morbidity, mortality, and disability associated with four NTDs. Sightsavers has used mass drug administration to deliver almost one million treatments and train more than 5,000 community volunteers and health workers in areas at risk of NTDs.