Spread of parasitic disease addressed

With decades of experience as a leader in the pharmaceutical industry, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) can rightfully boast of numerous community health projects that it has spearheaded to benefit countless of disease-inflicted individuals.

In the Philippines, GSK reinforces its commitment to public health by vowing to eliminate the dreaded Lymphatic filariasis (LF), the second most debilitating disease in the provinces today.

LF, a tropical parasitic disease caused by thread-like worms (filariae) that live in the human lymphatic system, afflicts an estimated 206,909 Filipinos today. To eliminate it as a public health problem is a lengthy but workable timeframe of 20 years, GSK Phils. is prepared to supply 83 million tablets of the anti-parasitic "albendazole" that will jump-start the curing process for those with LF.

The debilitating culprit

The growing number of Filipinos with LF, unless treated with anti-parasitic drugs, are at risk of acquiring a condition called elephantiasis. This causes parts of the body to become grossly swollen, leading to severe disfigurement, decreased mobility, and long-term disability. All these complications start from a bite of a microfilariae-carrying mosquito, which transfers the parasitic worms to humans.

Detecting the LF-causing worms and diagnosing the disease also pose a problem for doctors because the filariae can only be detected between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m. Scant hope came with the introduction of the Circulating Filarial Antigen (CFA) method of detection, which can be performed at any time of the day. With diagnosis now made easier, more accurate and faster, concerns dwindled down to the most difficult of all: curing the disease.

Hope for the Filipino

It was the disease’s nature and prevalence that prompted GSK to partner with the World Health Organization (WHO) in its eradication campaign against LF. GSK has also partnered with the Department of Health (DOH) in taking preventive measures crucial in ensuring that the estimated 4.5 million Filipinos at risk will not acquire the disease. GSK will turn over the medicines to the WHO for distribution by the DOH.

GSK’s commitment to eradicate LF was further reinforced following the visit of GSK worldwide president and COO Robert Ingram to the country recently. Ingram, accompanied by Health Secretary Manuel Dayrit, GSK regional director for Asia-Pacific Andrew Witty, GSK Phils. president and managing director Amado Tadena and vice president for corporate affairs Noel Isberto, paid President Arroyo a visit to brief her on how LF has been affecting an alarming portion of the local population.

While Ingram was here, GSK also gave Dayrit an LF information kit containing helpful fact sheets, a book and a taped documentary on LF to help the DOH in spreading information about the disease.

Endemic areas

The DOH will distribute the medicines to the affected areas via a "filaria fair," a whole-day deworming medical mission made festive with fun activities for the patients. The department aims to hold filaria fairs in strategic areas to eventually cover all places where LF is prevalent.

These areas are Marinduque, Mindoro Oriental, Albay, Camarines Norte and Sur, Catanduanes, Masbate, Sorsogon, Biliran, Eastern and Northern Samar, Samar, Northern and Southern Leyte, Zamboanga del Norte, Davao del Norte and del Sur, South Cotabato, Davao Oriental and Sarangani.

Suspected affected areas are La Union, Batangas, Cavite, Mindoro Occidental, Palawan, Quezon, Rizal, Romblon, Bohol, Cebu, Negros Oriental, Zamboanga del Sur, Bukidnon, Misamis Occidental and Oriental, Sultan Kudarat, Lanao del Norte and del Sur, North Cotabato, Sulu, Mt. Province, Agusan del Norte and del Sur, and Surigao del Norte and del Sur.

Despite the collaborative efforts of the DOH, GlaxoSmithKline and the WHO, fully eradicating LF in the Philippines promises to be an enormous challenge. Undoubtedly, it will take more time and financial assistance from different sectors to ensure its success, as well as proper education of the population to avoid the spread of the disease. A formidable task, indeed, but not an impossible one.