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India Has Historic Opportunity To End Tropical Diseases
Living in rural areas predisposes over 70 percent Indians to get these infections and trapping them in poverty with coastal areas the most vulnerable.
Up north, Bihar, Jharkhand, Orissa and West Bengal and in the South Tamil Nadu and Kerala also have higher rates of elephantiasis.
In India, working hand in hand with the government, Mistry's Network runs a very local customised END7 awareness campaign to end these diseases, mainly led by a lot of private sector Indian companies.
As pills are donated by pharmaceutical companies and existing infrastructure is used, it costs only 50 cents (31 rupees) to treat and protect one person for an entire year against all the seven NTDs.
With the new government's commitment to sanitation, there is a huge move to reduce open defecation in India as that's the key to controlling these infectious diseases.
Because these parasites are in the intestines, it comes out in urine and faeces and gets back into the soil or water and when people walk barefoot or children don't wash their hands, it infects new individuals or even re-infects individuals who have been treated.
Thus "reducing open defecation together with providing treatment is what's going to turn this around," Mistry said.
Source: IANS
