The Schistosomiasis Control Initiative has attracted a donation of £500K from a private donor

The Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI), a unit in the School of Public Health (DIDE) has attracted a donation of £500K from a private donor for their work on treating Neglected Tropical Diseases in Africa.

After discussions with SCI Director Professor Alan Fenwick the donor agreed that his contribution will allow the Government of Burundi with SCI support to continue treating children against worms for the next two years (at least). This is incredibly valuable because there are almost 4 million school aged children in Burundi and over 50% are infected with intestinal helminths and/or schistosomiasis. Four treatments - one every six months - using albendazole donated by GSK is planned for these children, and those children in areas endemic for schistosomiasis will be treated with praziquantel once a year. This programme was previously supported by the charitable Legatum Foundation.

The donor says he was directed to SCI through http://www.givingwhatwecan.org/resources/recommended-charities.php where SCI is listed as the top recommended charity for donations.

SCI is currently active in helping Ministries of Health and Education treat for schistosomiasis and intestinal helminths in Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cote D'Ivoire, Malawi, Mozambique, Niger, Rwanda, Tanzania, Uganda and Zanzibar. Working with the Liverpool Centre for NTDs, using DFID funding, programmes are also underway in Liberia and Zambia. SCI also works closely with the Partnership for Child Development (PCD) which is in the same Department. SCI aims in the next 3 years to increase the number of children reached from the current 40 million per year to about 200 million.

• http://www3.imperial.ac.uk/schisto