Elephantiasis elimination program on track: study

By Michael Kahn

LONDON (Reuters) - An international effort to eliminate elephantiasis is on track and has protected millions of children against the disfiguring disease, proving to be one of the "best buys" in public health, researchers said on Wednesday.

Since 2000, the World Health Organization (WHO)-sponsored program has administered more than 1.9 billion treatments to over 570 million people at an estimated cost of $0.50 per person, their analysis showed.

The study, published in the Public Library of Science journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, said the partnership between drug makers and health groups had put the program on track to eliminate elephantiasis, or lymphatic filariasis (LF), by 2020.

"Future public-private partnerships will look to the global LF elimination effort as a standout example of how groups can come together to solve a major public health issue," Lorenzo Savioli, director of the WHO's Department of Neglected Diseases, said in a statement.

Elephantiasis is a tropical disease marked by swelling of the arms, legs, head, genitals or breasts.

It affects an estimated 120 million people in 83 countries, with another 1.3 billion people at risk, according to the WHO.

The disease is caused by small, thread-like parasitic worms spread by mosquitoes that can live for years inside the human body and thrive in the lymphatic system.

GlaxoSmithKline's Albendazole and Merck & Co's Mectizan are effective treatments, especially if given early, but many in the developing world lack access to them.

The two drugmakers have donated their medicines to the program, which has helped to keep costs low, the researchers said. On Wednesday, Glaxo also pledged to deliver an additional 300 million treatments over the next two years.

So far, the program has prevented 6.6 million children from acquiring the disease and stopped another 9.5 million people already infected from progressing to more debilitating stages, the study found.

The treatments have also offered further benefits, protecting tens of millions of children and women from intestinal worms and other skin diseases, Eric Ottesen of the Lymphatic Filariasis Support Center in Atlanta, who led the study, and colleagues said.

(Editing by Louise Ireland)