May, 17 2010, 11:45am EDT
For Immediate Release
Contact:
Tim Shenk,Press Officer,Direct: 212-763-5764,E-mail:,tim.shenk@newyork.msf.org
Combating Chagas Disease Must Also Include Treatment and Research for New Medicines
MSF and DNDi call on World Health Assembly to pass resolution that includes access to Chagas diagnosis and treatment in primary healthcare
GENEVA
A World Health Assembly (WHA) resolution on Chagas disease control
and elimination, to be adopted this week, is a step in the right
direction but does not go far enough to fully tackle the disease since
it focuses only on prevention, the international medial humanitarian
organization Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) and
the Drugs for Neglected Disease initiative=
(DNDi) said today.
The groups are calling on WHA member states to also focus on the
integration of diagnosis and treatment of Chagas at primary health care
levels and to increase research and development of effective drugs to
treat the parasitic disease, common in parts of Latin America.
"After more than 10 years of experience, MSF has successfully treated
thousands of patients with Chagas," said Fran Roman, vice-president of
MSF. "We would like to see equal importance given to treatment and
diagnosis as to prevention strategies. The countries affected must agree
to integrate diagnosis and treatment at the primary health level if
they want to reach all patients-children and adults-in both acute and
chronic phases of the disease."
While the intention of the resolution is to control and eliminate
Chagas disease, it includes no clear statement addressing diagnosis,
treatment once patients are diagnosed, or the research and development
of new tools to the fight the disease.
"Chagas patients have been forgotten because they are poor and fall
outside mainstream market interest," said Bernard Pecoul, executive
director of DNDi. "But science exists to develop better treatments and
diagnostic tools for all. The first steps toward progress at an
international level are through sustainable, predictable funding and
strong public support. The delegates at the WHA now have the opportunity
to move forward and take concrete action," he said.
The WHA resolution has the potential to impact millions of people
infected by Chagas, the leading parasitic killer in the Americas, with
an estimated 10 to 15 million people infected per year.
The WHA should follow the example of the Pan American Health
Organization (PAHO), which prioritized treatment in its 2009 resolution
"Elimination of neglected diseases and other poverty-related
infections," said the organizations.
Urgent actions and measures to increase medical response must be taken
to scale up diagnosis, treatment and patient access to care and to boost
research and development for new tools. MSF and DNDi also call on
member states to reinforce the supply chains of existing treatments so
that they are available to health staff and national programs and to
promote much-needed research and development, which is virtually
non-existent. They also urge a focus on better treatment (less toxic,
shorter and more efficient treatment courses in all stages of the
disease for children and adults), diagnostic tools adapted to the
limited resources settings and a test of cure to control Chagas disease.
About American Trypanosomiasis or Chagas Disease
Each year, an estimated 10 to 15 million people across the world are
infected with the Chagas disease. Every year 14,000 people die as a
consequences of the disease. Endemic in 21 Central and Latin American
countries, it also has growing presence in non-endemic countries through
migration of people. In Central and South America, Chagas kills more
people than any other parasite-borne disease, including malaria. The
disease is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma cruzi transmitted
primarily by insects known as "kissing bugs". The existing treatments
have an unsatisfactory cure rate and can have toxic side effects. DNDi
aims to develop affordable, safe, and efficacious treatments for
children and adults.
Doctors Without Borders /Medecins Sans Frontieres/ (MSF)
has screened more than 60,000 people for Chagas and has treated over
3,000 patients with the disease since 1999. MSF opened its first Chagas
treatment program in Honduras. MSF has developed programs in Nicaragua,
Guatemala and currently screens, diagnoses and treats children and
adults in Bolivia and Colombia. A new project is opening in Paraguay.
About DNDi
The Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) is a not-for-profit
product development partnership working to research and develop new and
improved treatments for neglected diseases, in particular human African
trypanosomiasis, leishmaniasis, Chagas disease, and malaria. With the
objective to address unmet patient needs for these diseases, DNDi was
established in 2003 by the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation from Brazil, the
Indian Council for Medical Research, the Kenya Medical Research
Institute, the Ministry of Health of Malaysia, the Pasteur Institute,
and Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF). WHO/TDR acts
as a permanent observer. Working in partnership with industry and
academia, DNDi has the largest ever R&D portfolio for kinetoplastid
diseases. Since 2007, DNDi has delivered three products, two fixed-dose
anti-malarials "ASAQ" and "ASMQ", and a combination treatment for the
advanced stage of sleeping sickness "NECT" (nifurtimox-eflornithine
combination therapy).
The first Chagas treatment for children, pediatric strength
benznidazole, will be made available in the near future by DNDi and
Pharmaceutical Laboratory of Pernambuco (LAFEPE) in Brazil. Furthermore,
in 2009 DNDi signed a collaboration and license agreement with the
Japanese pharmaceutical company Eisai Co. Ltd. for the clinical
development of the promising compound E1224, to treat Chagas disease.
Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) is an international medical humanitarian organization created by doctors and journalists in France in 1971. MSF's work is based on the humanitarian principles of medical ethics and impartiality. The organization is committed to bringing quality medical care to people caught in crisis regardless of race, religion, or political affiliation. MSF operates independently of any political, military, or religious agendas.
LATEST NEWS
Russia's Putin Secures Another Term
The controversial leader won a record number of votes for a post-Soviet candidate even as opponents organized a protest at noon on the election's third and last day.
Mar 17, 2024
Despite protests on Sunday, Russian President Vladimir Putin won reelection with more votes than any candidate since the fall of the Soviet Union.
Exit poll the Public Opinion Foundation (POF) put the final tally after three days of voting at 87.8%, the Russian Public Opinion Research Center (VCIOM) at 87%, and Russia's Central Election Commission (CEC) at 87.3%. Putin will now serve another six-year term, meaning he will have been at the helm of the Russian state for longer than any leader since Catherine the Great, surpassing Josef Stalin.
The election comes less than a month after the second anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine and is likely to lead to more tensions between the Russian and U.S. governments.
"It gives me some hope to see how many people are not happy with the dictatorship, the war, with what's happening in Russia."
"For a U.S. administration that hoped Putin's Ukraine adventure would be wrapped up by now with a decisive setback to Moscow's interests, the election is a reminder that Putin expects that there will be many more rounds in the geopolitical boxing ring," Nikolas Gvosdev, director of the National Security Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute, told the Russia Matters project.
With most of Putin's prominent opponents either dead, imprisoned, or in exile, the elections results were considered a foregone conclusion by both friends and foes of his administration.
A Putin spokesperson said in 2023 that the election was "not really democracy" but instead "costly bureaucracy," according to CNN. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the White House National Security Council said the election was "obviously not free nor fair."
However, Russian opponents of Putin did find a way to demonstrate their position with a protest called "Noon Against Putin." The protest was called for by St. Petersburg politician Maxim Reznik, according to The Guardian. Participants were instructed to head to a polling place at noon and cast a paper ballot for one of the candidates running against Putin, or to write-in another candidate or spoil their ballot.
Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny had endorsed the protest before his death last month in a Russian prison, leading the Independent Novaya Gazeta newspaper to dub it "Navalny's political testament."
The action drew crowds to polling places both in Russian cities like Moscow, St. Petersburg, and Yekaterinburg and at Russian embassies around the world.
"This is the first time in my life I have ever seen a queue for elections," one woman waiting in line in Moscow told
CNN. Russian journalists reported that the lines at some stations within the country reached the thousands, according to Reuters.
Navalny's widow, Yulia Navalnaya, who had also endorsed the protest, voted at the embassy in Berlin, while several protesters gathered outside the embassy in London.
"I expected there to be a lot of people, but not this many," London-based participant Maria Dorofeyeva told The Guardian, adding, "It gives me some hope to see how many people are not happy with the dictatorship, the war, with what's happening in Russia. And we want to stop it."
Ruslan Shaveddinov of Navalny's Anti-Corruption Foundation told Reuters:
"We showed ourselves, all of Russia and the whole world that Putin is not Russia (and) that Putin has seized power in Russia."
"Our victory is that we, the people, defeated fear, we defeated solitude—many people saw they were not alone," Shaveddinov said
Keep ReadingShow Less
Van Hollen Says Netanyahu Spreading 'Flat Out Lies' About UNRWA
The Maryland senator defended the organization on CBS and said there was no evidence that it was a "proxy for Hamas."
Mar 17, 2024
U.S. Senator for Maryland Chris Van Hollen continued his defense of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East and its work in Gaza in an appearance on CBS News' "Face the Nation" on Sunday.
"The claim that Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu and others are making that somehow UNRWA is a proxy for Hamas are just flat out lies, that's a flat out lie," he told journalist Margaret Brennan.
The U.S. was one of many Western countries that paused funding for UNRWA after the agency announced in January that it had fired 12 staffers over Israeli allegations that they had been involved in Hamas' October 7 attack on Israel. However, some countries including Canada, Sweden, the European Union, and Australia have since restored funding. A report has also emerged that Israel tortured UNRWA staffers into falsely confessing to involvement in the Hamas attack.
"Netanyahu has wanted to get rid of UNRWA because he had seen them as a means to continue the hopes of the Palestinian people for a homeland of their own."
Van Hollen's remarks on Sunday come days after he argued for the restoration of UNRWA funds on the floor of the U.S. Senate and criticized Republican legislators who wanted to permanently end funds for the organization that supports some 6 million Palestinian refugees in countries across the Middle East, including around 2 million in Gaza.
During his speech, he pointed out that the Netanyahu government had not shared the underlying evidence that UNRWA staffers participated in October 7 with either UNRWA itself or the U.S. government. He also urged his colleagues to read a classified Director of National Intelligence report on Netanyahu's claims of UNRWA complicity with Hamas.
On "Face the Nation," Van Hollen said that the person in charge of operations on the ground in UNRWA was a 20-year U.S. Army veteran.
"You can be sure he is not in cahoots with Hamas," the senator told Brennan.
He also repeated claims that Netanyahu has wanted to eliminate UNRWA entirely since at least 2017.
"Netanyahu has wanted to get rid of UNRWA because he had seen them as a means to continue the hopes of the Palestinian people for a homeland of their own," Van Hollen said, adding that the right-wing Israeli leader's "primary objective" was preventing the formation of a Palestinian state.
However, the dismantling of UNRWA would be especially catastrophic amid Israel's ongoing bombardment and invasion of Gaza, which has killed more than 31,000 people and put the survivors at risk of famine. No other organization has the infrastructure in place to distribute the necessary aid.
"If you cut off funding for UNRWA in Gaza entirely, it means more people will starve, more people won't get the medial assistance they need, and so it would be a huge mistake," Van Hollen said.
He also said that only 14 of the agency's 13,000-strong staff in Gaza had been accused of participating in the October 7 attack.
"We should investigate it, we should hold all those people accountable, but for goodness' sake, let's not hold 2 million innocent Palestinian civilians who are dying of starvation... accountable for the bad acts of 14 people."
Van Hollen also repeated his call for President Joe Biden to condition the sale of offensive military weapons to Israel on the country obeying international law and allowing aid into Gaza. While Israel sent the U.S. a letter saying it was in compliance with the law, "the day it was signed, clearly the Netanyahu government is not in compliance, because we see that they're continuing to restrict humanitarian assistance," he told Brennan.
Also on "Face the Nation" Sunday, United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund (UNICEF) Chief Executive Catherine Russell described the impact that a lack of aid was having on the children of Gaza.
"We know now that children are dying of malnutrition in Gaza," she told Brennan.
Russell said that not enough aid was reaching those who needed it, calling both air drops and sea deliveries "a drop in the bucket."
She also called for greater transparency into what was actually happening in Gaza and the difficulties of delivering aid.
"The world should be able to see what's happening and make their own judgments about what's going on," Russell said.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Gore Calls Out Fossil Fuel Industry 'Shamelessness' in Lying to Public
"They are continuing to do similar things today to try to fool people and pull the wool over people's eyes just in the name of greed," the former vice president said.
Mar 17, 2024
In reflecting on nearly 50 years of climate advocacy, former Vice President Al Gore said that he had "underestimated" the greed of the fossil fuel industry.
The remarks came in an interview published in USA Today on Sunday. When asked if he had any regrets, Gore responded that he had "put every ounce of energy" he had into climate advocacy, but added:
"I was pretty slow to recognize how important the massive funding of anti-climate messaging was going on. I underestimated the power of greed in the fossil fuel industry, the shamelessness in putting out the lies."
"They are continuing to do similar things today to try to fool people and pull the wool over people's eyes just in the name of greed," Gore continued.
"What's at stake is so incredible."
Gore, who tried to raise awareness about the climate crisis in the U.S. House of Representatives as early as 1981 and brought the issue to national attention in 2006's documentary An Inconvenient Truth, has taken a harsher tone against oil, gas, and coal companies in recent months. In August 2023, he said that the "climate crisis is a fossil fuel crisis," and in September, he implored the industry to "get out of the way." In December, he lamented that the industry had "captured the COP process," referring to the appointment of the United Arab Emirates national oil company CEO Sultan Ahmed Al Jaber to preside over the United Nations' COP28 climate conference in that country.
In the USA Today interview, Gore also named the fossil fuel industry when asked about his greatest frustration.
"Well, that we haven't made more progress," Gore answered, "and that some of the fossil fuel companies have been shameless in providing, continuing to provide lavish funding for disinformation and misinformation."
"What's at stake is so incredible," he added.
However, Gore told USA Today that he tried not to focus on his anger, but instead on continuing to raise awareness about the crisis and what can be done about it. And he remained hopeful that his grandchildren would live in a world in which people had come together and acted in time.
"We've got all the solutions we need right now to cut emissions in half before the end of this decade," he said. "We've got a clear line of sight to how we can cut the other 50% of emissions by mid century."
He also encouraged more people to get involved with the climate movement.
"I would say the greatest need is for more grassroots advocates because the most persuasive advocates are those in your own community," he said.
Keep ReadingShow Less
Most Popular