2/1/2001
EAST LANSING, Mich. - Michigan State University is among the partners in a global alliance that is receiving $20 million from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to fight the disfiguring tropical disease lymphatic filariasis, also known as elephantiasis.
The five-year grant will support the work of the Global Alliance for the Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis, a coalition of public and private sector partners, including MSU, that is seeking to cure a disease that afflicts millions of people around the world.
As part of the alliance, MSU has teamed with the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine and Emory University to determine where the disease is most prevalent and devise ways in which to help afflicted countries eliminate it.
"Our role is to help a country develop the ability to distribute the treatment," said Charles Mackenzie, an MSU professor of veterinary pathology who is directing MSU's role in the project. "You just can't send them a form and say 'please fill this out.' You have to go and show them how to do it. You need to be there to provide assistance."
In addition to providing badly needed treatment for elephantiasis, this approach also has long-term benefits for the country.
"This helps them develop a health structure that can be used for other things," Mackenzie said. "If we can help them set up a system in which to get the drugs to the people who need them for elephantiasis, then this system may be applicable for other treatments."
This is an area in which Mackenzie has a lot of experience. In 2000, he took a one-year sabbatical to serve as program director for the lymphatic filariasis drug donation program for Merck & Co. and Glaxo SmithKline, drug companies that have donated the medications needed to prevent the disease.
"We've already begun the first round of treatment and, so far, it's been very successful," he said.
Mackenzie recently returned from the east African nation of Tanzania, where more than 40,000 people were treated for the disease.
Other MSU roles in the project will include providing fellowships that will allow students in endemic countries to study at MSU and the development of a program web site.
Other organizations that are part of the alliance and being funded by the Gates Foundation grant are the World Health Organization; Emory University's Rollins School of Public Health, which is collaborating with the Atlanta-based Carter Center and the Centers for Disease Control; and Interchurch Medical Assistance, a Maryland-based nongovernmental organization that works to improve the availability of health care in Third World nations.
Elephantiasis is spread by the bite of infected mosquitoes. Worldwide, it's estimated that one in 10 people are at risk of the disease and that one in 50 is infected.
Its most common symptoms are enlargement of the legs, arms and genitals. Internally, the disease can cause damage to the kidneys and lymphatic system. In addition, the psychosocial and social stigma associated with the disease are immense.
"People become depressed and quite often suicidal," Mackenzie said. "On our latest trip to Africa, elephantiasis patients we spoke to said they knew of someone with the disease who had committed suicide."
Mackenzie, an MSU faculty member since 1989, will spend much of the next five years in Africa working to eradicate elephantiasis. Most of MSU's work will focus on the east African nations of Tanzania, Ghana and Togo.
Mackenzie is a veteran of the tropical disease wars. He has worked extensively in many African and Latin American countries. In particular, he has been a leader in the fight against onchocerciasis, a disease also known as river blindness that disfigures and eventually blinds its victims.