Now in its sixth year, the Accelerate programme has already delivered 53 million treatments to protect people from trachoma, and managed 91,000 advanced cases of the disease.
The extra funding from international donors will help speed up the elimination of trachoma in Africa by expanding and extending the programme.
The Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust has awarded Sightsavers a grant of US$2.19 million to help fight the disease.
Sightsavers’ Phil Downs explains why the funding pledge is a huge step towards tackling the two neglected tropical diseases and eliminating them for good.
The online event will share key findings on eliminating trachoma from a new collection of research papers published in the International Health journal.
The funding will be used for programmes that protect people from the harmful effects of trachoma, river blindness, lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis and intestinal worms.
Led by Sightsavers and the Walker Institute, the project will work with the Malawian government to explore a range of future scenarios, and what these would mean for its efforts to curb NTDs.
Sightsavers’ Roland Bougma shares what action needs to be taken to ensure the disease is eliminated as a public health problem globally.
As even more countries get closer to eliminating trachoma, a new challenge is emerging: how to keep the health workforce well-trained on identifying signs of the disease.
Benin and Ghana, two of the countries where Sightsavers works, have been recognised for their success in wiping out several diseases that are prevalent in poor and marginalised communities.