The IDB along with PAHO and the Global Network for Neglected Tropical Diseases are embarking on an initiative to fight diseases which affect the poorest nations in the Region.
In a press release the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) said more than 47 million people in Latin America and the Caribbean are at risk or are being affected by infectious diseases ranging from dengue fever to schistosomiasis. “The IDB is taking a very important step to help the region put an end to these preventable and controllable diseases of poverty,” IDB president Luis Alberto Moreno said, adding that these afflictions have a debilitating effect on social and economic development. He said these diseases disproportionately affect the poor and cause chronic illnesses that prevent millions of people from working and earning decent incomes.
The IDB Board on Wednesday approved a co-financing agreement with the Sabin Vaccine Institute in which the biggest
multilateral lender for Latin America and the Caribbean will design and create a new lending facility to fight parasitic infectious diseases in the region. The new grant facility will support health actions by state and national level entities both governmental and non-governmental in a bid to boost efforts at controlling and eliminating neglected infectious diseases known as NID.
Under the accord the Global Network and the Sabin institute will provide $2.5M over two years to the IDB to develop and launch the facility. The funds are part of a larger grant the Global Network received earlier this year from the Bill and Melinda Gates foundation. The new facility will provide grants to support mass drug administration, preventative chemotherapy and conduct otherwise proven cost-effective interventions to fight tropical diseases. Moreover, it will provide technical assistance to strengthen national and local health information systems and foster cooperation among different sectors of the society and existing health and social programmes to control such ailments.
It will also support measures to eliminate onchocerciasis also known as river blindness and lymphatic filiariasis also known as elephantiasis. It will seek to prevent and control trachoma, the world’s leading cause of infectious blindness and three parasitic diseases: schistosomiasis, soil-transmittd helminthiasis and Chagas disease. The facility will also include interventions to control or drastically reduce the prevalence of other ailments that could be part of an integrated plan; that is dengue, leishmaniasis, rabies transmitted by dogs, plague or other neglected tropical diseases.
Under the technical cooperation agreement the IDB and its partners will develop the architecture, governance and operational arrangements for the new facility which will be funded by donations from governments, foundations, private sector entities and multi and bilateral aid agencies.
To find out more about the IDB initiatives interested persons can log on to the following websites: www.iadb.org/facebook or www.iadb.org/youtube
