Protect children against Neglected Tropical Diseases or sub-Saharan Africa cannot develop, say winners of Queen's Anniversary Prize

Honour for Schistosomiasis Control Initiative <em>- News Release </em>

Imperial College London News Release

Under strict embargo for 19.00 GMT
Thursday 15 November 2007

Countries in sub-Saharan Africa will be unable to develop unless children are protected against the Neglected Tropical Diseases that are holding them back, says an Imperial College London expert whose programme was today awarded a major prize by the Queen.

People in the West are very aware of the toll taken by diseases like HIV, TB and malaria and as a result, more funding is devoted to tackling these than to fighting Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) like schistosomiasis and elephantiasis. However, NTDs prevent far more children from progressing fully with their lives, argues Professor Alan Fenwick, head of the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI) at Imperial College London.

It was announced today that the SCI has won a Queen's Anniversary Prize for its programme, which has in just five years administered over 43 million treatments for schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths in countries such as Niger and Burkina Faso. The programme estimates that it has cured over 20 million people of these diseases during this time, although regular annual treatments are necessary to keep them free of re-infections.

Professor Fenwick says that enabling children to be productive and achieve their potential is the key to development. Tackling NTDs is crucial because they are otherwise malnourished, debilitated and caught in the poverty trap caused by poor health. NTDs prevent people from benefiting from available education and, later in life, being able to work.

Over one billion people are infected with the most common NTDs which include trachoma, the world's leading cause of preventable blindness; soil-transmitted helminths like hookworm, which cause stunted growth and absenteeism from school; elephantiasis, an infestation of the lymphatic system which causes terrible deformities; schistosomiasis, which causes liver and kidney damage, and impaired growth and development; and river blindness, which causes skin rash, eye lesions and blindness.

The SCI's programme has already proved how effective treatment can be but approximately 200 million people across Africa still need to be treated.

However, the team behind the SCI's success say that all NTDs could be treated simply and easily with a 'rapid impact package' costing just 25 pence per person per year, thanks to drugs that are readily donated by pharmaceutical companies.

"Basic health and education should form the keystones of development, and the health of children across sub-Saharan Africa is really compromised by these diseases. We have children who can't get the education they deserve because they're too ill to attend school, and adults who are unable to work. People in the West don't appreciate how lucky we are not to have a parasitic burden," said Professor Fenwick.

Professor Joanne Webster, Director of Monitoring and Evaluation for the SCI from Imperial College, added: "We are delighted that the Queen has recognised with this prize the good work that the SCI has been doing over the last five years to improve the prospects for millions of people in sub-Saharan Africa. Programmes like ours have already proved that we can easily bring these diseases under control and vastly improve the quality of people's lives and their productivity. We could make a vast difference to future of sub-Saharan Africa if we had the means to treat everyone, but to do this we need more funding."

Professor Fenwick estimates that with an investment of approximately USD 1 billion over seven years, everyone in sub-Saharan Africa could be reached with the drug package, which would then bring all NTDs in the region under control. Once this coverage had been achieved, a new sustainable programme could be implemented which would only treat children as they entered school and again three years later. These children would then be protected from the serious consequences of NTDs for the rest of their lives.

Sir Richard Sykes, Rector of Imperial College, said of the award of the Queen's Anniversary Prize, "I congratulate Alan and his colleagues on achieving this recognition for the fantastic work they are doing to improve the lives of millions of people. Unfortunately we know that what the SCI and its partner organisations are able to do at the moment is not enough - without more money, millions will continue to suffer because of Neglected Tropical Diseases. We need more philanthropists and governments to come forward to tackle NTDs across Africa. They have the opportunity to make a huge impact on the health of the world's people."

The SCI was established in 2002 with a grant of USD 30 million (GBP 20 million) from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. It collaborates with Ministries of Health to control schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths through an annual mass drug administration programme using the drugs praziquantel and albendazole. In December 2006, the Gates foundation gave a further grant totalling USD 47.6 million to five organisations, including the SCI, to support efforts to coordinate and integrate programmes fighting NTDs in developing countries.

The SCI was and is unique in British universities. Imperial College's Faculty of Medicine has made tackling disease in the developing world one of its main strategic themes and over 60 Principal Investigators attract £17 million in research funding annually for its Public and International Health activities.

Other examples of the College's International Health activities include:

• An Imperial team at the Wellcome Trust/KEMRI research unit in Kenya has helped to devise a simple intervention to save the lives of hundreds of thousands of African children who die each year from severe malaria
• In conjunction with the MRC Clinical Trials Unit, an Imperial group is coordinating trials of microbicide gels to prevent HIV infection in Africa and the UK
• The Wellcome Trust Centre for Clinical Tropical Medicine at Imperial has developed a potentially life-saving new test for rapid, inexpensive detection of TB in developing countries.

**Photographs of people receiving treatment from the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative are available in 300 dpi**

**Footage of interviews with members of the SCI team including Professors Fenwick and Webster can be viewed here: http://ichelix1.cc.ic.ac.uk/ramgen/mediaspool/news/sci_interviews2007.rv**

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Notes to editors:

1. This is the fourth Queens Anniversary Prize awarded to Imperial College London researchers. Previous winners are: the Centre for Process Systems Engineering in 2005; the Centre for Environmental Technology in 1994; and the Academic Surgical Unit in 2001.

2. The Queen's Anniversary Prizes for Higher and Further Education recognise and reward the outstanding contribution that universities and colleges in the United Kingdom make to the intellectual, economic, cultural and social life of the nation. The Prizes are awarded within the national honours system.

The Prizes Scheme was established in 1993 by the Royal Anniversary Trust, a charity set up initially to bring about the national programmes to mark the 40th anniversary in 1992 of The Queen's accession to the throne.

3. About Neglected Tropical Diseases

NTDs are a group of parasitic diseases and bacterial infections that cause poverty, stigmatise, and disable more than one billion of the world's people.

These treatable and preventable diseases are a devastating obstacle to socio-economic development because they debilitate, deform, blind and kill. Common NTDs include:

• Schistosomiasis (Bilharzia) - causes blood in the urine, anaemia, liver and kidney damage, and impaired growth and development. Over 200 million infected and 280,000 deaths annually
• Soil-transmitted helminths - (hookworm, ascaris, trichuris) Over 1 billion infected worldwide - causes stunted growth and 25% absenteeism from school
• Trachoma - the world's leading cause of preventable blindness. 80 million infected - leaving 8 million blind or visually impaired
• Lymphatic filariasis (Elephantiasis) - infestation of the lymphatic system. 120 million infected - causing terrible deformities and US$1.5 billion in lost productivity
• Onchocerciasis (River Blindness) - causes skin rash, eye lesions and blindness. 37 million infected - without treatment up to 40% of adult villagers would be blind.

4. About Imperial College London

Rated as the world's fifth best university in the 2007 Times Higher Education Supplement University Rankings, Imperial College London is a science-based institution with a reputation for excellence in teaching and research that attracts 11,500 students and 6,000 staff of the highest international quality.

Innovative research at the College explores the interface between science, medicine, engineering and management and delivers practical solutions that improve quality of life and the environment - underpinned by a dynamic enterprise culture.

With 66 Fellows of the Royal Society among our current academic staff and distinguished past members of the College including 14 Nobel Laureates and two Fields Medallists, Imperial's contribution to society has been immense. Inventions and innovations include the discovery of penicillin, the development of holography and the foundations of fibre optics. This commitment to the application of our research for the benefit of all continues today with current focuses including interdisciplinary collaborations to tackle climate change and mathematical modelling to predict and control the spread of infectious diseases.

The College's 100 years of living science will be celebrated throughout 2007 with a range of events to mark the Centenary of the signing of Imperial's founding charter on 8 July 1907. Website: www.imperial.ac.uk