Feed the Children International and Food for the Hungry donate essential drugs

The Burundian NTD Control programme secures a second donation of 1 million tablets of Mebendazole from Feed the Children International and 7.6 million tablets of Mebendazole from Food for the hungry

Feed the children and Food for the hungry are non-profit relief organisations which helps the poorest of the poor, wherever support is needed.

In 2009, the Burundian NTD Control programme managed to secure a second donation of 1 million tablets of Mebendazole from Feed the Children International as well as a further donation of 7.6 million tablets of Mebendazole from Food for the Hungry. These tablets will be used to deworm millions of children and pregnant women in their second or third trimester in June 2009 and 2010.

The NTD Control programme normally has to buy the drugs needed to treat the Burundian population, so these donations will translate into very significant savings on the budget of the programme. The savings will be used partly to scale up the fight against trachoma, another neglected tropical disease that affects the Burundian population, and partly to prolong the treatment against soil-transmitted helminths and schistosomiasis for at least one more year.

The NTD Control programme would like to deeply thank Feed the Children International and Food for the Hungry, on behalf of the Burundian population, especially its children.