New program to combat infectious diseases in Yemen

To reduce the rate of infection by Onchocerciasis (Sowda) disease to less than 5 percent until the elimination of the disease is reached, the Onchocerciasis Control Program recently arranged a training course for around 30 of the program’s volunteers in Khamis Bani Sa’d district, Al-Mahweet governorate. 

The program, which is supported by the Charitable Society for Social Welfare (CSSW), has aimed by this training course to renew the volunteers’ information regarding this disease. The course lasted for two days and took place in a hospital located in the district, training volunteers on how to struggle against spreading this disease among people and how to cure and prevent from infections with the disease.

Onchocerciasis (Sowda) disease is caused by the nematodes of hooky tails of Onchocercea volvulus, onchocerciasis is a chronic parasitic filarial disease. Due to severe itching, the skin color might change and could lead to vision disorder or even blindness.

The program also aimed to treat 80 percent of the infected cases and the population at risk according to the Database of Epidemiological Survey for 5 years, and to raise health awareness among people in the targeted areas on the disease prevention measures. 

“Our program depends on very limited financial resources despite its important role in combating one of the most neglected diseases in this country,” said Isam Eldin al-Hussein, Health Program Officer and International Relations representative. “Non-governmental organizations, like the CSSW, have a complementary role of what is done by the Ministry of Public Health and Population in improving the health conditions of people and in combating diseases, but they need more support and encouragement,” he stressed.      

Statistics shows that the program presented its services to cure and treat 50,614 of patients living in Al-Mahweet, Hajjah, Al-Hodeidah, Raima and Sana’a governorates and to discover more 128 new cases during the year of 2007. During the same period, around 147,000 of Mectizan tablets for onchocerciasis were disturbed to eligible people for treatment and prevention of men, women and children.  

The total number of cases benefited from the program in the period that between December 2000 to December 2006, attained 282,681 with the distribution of 6,754,506 tablets of Mectizan, according to the program.   The program also increased its health centers from 86 to 103 during just one year (2007), and trained 59 volunteers to work in these centers. More than 2,200 people also benefited from health and social campaigns and sessions conducted by the program to educate people, living in the targeted areas of the disease. 

The program is one of the results and achievements of the Health Caravans Project organized by the CSSW in Al-Mahweet governorate in 1997 and Al-Hodeidah governorate in 1998, which found that infected areas were in urgent need for continuous control activities to combat onchocerciasis.

In May 2000, the CSSW communicated with the technical director of the humanitarian program for Mectizan Distribution in Merck Sharp & Dohme Company and Mectizan Donation Program (MDP) in the Communicable Diseases Control (CDC) Atlanta, United States. Later, the program was approved by the MDP. 

The CSSW singed an agreement with the Ministry of Health   represented by the National Center for Epidemiological Surveillance. In December 2000, the program initiated the work by training 10 community volunteers to start activities in Al-Mahweet and Al-Hodeidah governorates. 

The CSSW also aims, by this program, to confirm the growing role played by the non-governmental organizations in health development, depending on the strategies and policies of the Ministry of Health regarding infectious and endemic diseases.

The CSSW has been successfully struggling onchocerciasis in five governorates since 2000. A wide net of 105 volunteers was also built by the organization in the targeted areas to carry out the program’s operations in struggling against this disease.

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