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Streamlining the Supply Chain for Trachoma Prevention and Treatment
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A community health worker in Ethiopia uses a spoon to get Zithromax® tablets out of a 500-count bottle during a mass drug administration in her community.
(Photo: Noah Kafumbe)
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The WHO-endorsed SAFE strategy brings Surgery, Antibiotics, Facial cleanliness and Environmental improvement to the poorest communities in countries where blinding trachoma is most likely to be found. As ITI's Supply Chain Manager, Noah Kafumbe is responsible for making sure the antibiotic of SAFE--Zithromax® donated by Pfizer Inc--arrives in the right country at the right time and in the right quantity. This supply chain is complex and involves ITI working in collaboration with Ministries of Health, NGO partners and country trachoma program managers.
"The change in packaging for Zithromax® has helped streamline our supply chain," says Kafumbe.
Trachoma Matters talked to Kafumbe about the ITI supply chain, recent packaging changes for Zithromax®, and about how he feels as a native Ugandan helping other Africans. Read the full transcript of our interview here.
Watch a short video of interview excerpts below.
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Trachoma Expert Committee Reviews
Zithromax® Applications for 2013
|  Allen Foster (right) chairs the Trachoma Expert Committee, which met recently in Atlanta. ITI staff prepares the documents the TEC reviews to decide which districts can receive Zithromax®. (Photo: Bill Nigut for ITI)
More than 900,000 Zithromax® treatments were approved for delivery to two new countries and tens of millions more were approved to support existing national trachoma programs in 17 countries during the most recent Trachoma Expert Committee (TEC) meeting in Atlanta in June. The new countries, Central African Republic (CAR) and Chad, will both begin distributing treatments for trachoma in 2013.
Read more here.
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WHO Updates Progress on Trachoma Elimination
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For the first time, trachoma was the topic of the World Health Organization's weekly epidemiology record released in April, providing the trachoma community with an opportunity to share the latest data on the fight to eliminate blinding trachoma.
Current estimates indicate 325 million people live in trachoma-endemic areas worldwide, according to the new progress report on elimination of blinding trachoma. Read more here.
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END Fund Launches in New York
 | | Danny Haddad (left), technical adviser for The END Fund, and Bill Campbell (right), chair of The END Fund's International Advisory Board. (Photo: Geneva Global/Jenna Mulhall-Brereton.) |
ITI Director Danny Haddad attended the official launch of The END Fund, the world's first private philanthropic initiative to combat seven neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in Africa.
The event was held June 12th in New York City.
The END Fund is seeded with grants from some of the world's most innovative philanthropists including the Campbell Family Foundation, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Dubai Cares, Geneva Global and the Legatum Foundation, the original anchor investor in the fund. The END Fund and its partners have disbursed over 40 million treatments to 9.7 million people over a four year period.
The END Fund has raised $16 million in pledges toward its goal of mobilizing the private philanthropic resources necessary to ensure treatment to over 50 million people by 2020.
The Lancet Covers Trachoma
 The highly respected British medical journal, The Lancet, has recently reported on trachoma elimination and neglected tropical diseases. A June 23 piece, Nepal Sees End in Sight for Trachoma, highlighted that country's efforts to eliminate the eye disease by 2014. Read the full article here.
A March 17 article said "only passing comments" to improve water and sanitation were made during a London meeting to launch the WHO roadmap on Accelerating Work to Overcome the Global Impact of Neglected Tropical Diseases. The article added that improving water, sanitation and hygiene appeared to be "almost an afterthought" in the list of recommended strategies to fight NTDs.
Responding in a July 7 Letter to the Editor, trachoma experts noted that improvement of water, sanitation and hygiene is an integral part of the SAFE strategy, and that the whole of the SAFE strategy is greater than the sum of its parts. They urged other diseases to adopt a similar, integrated approach. Read it here.
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| Upcoming Meetings
Sept. 4-6 | Sydney, Australia
Neglected Tropical Diseases NGDO Network
The third meeting of this global forum for nongovernmental development organizations (NGDOs) working to control onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis, schistosomiasis, soil transmitted helminths, and trachoma. These Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) share a common strategy of community-based health interventions that can be integrated to strengthen health care systems.
Sept. 7 | Sydney, Australia
International Coalition for Trachoma Control
A meeting for members of The International Coalition for Trachoma Control (ICTC) that advocates for the implementation of the WHO-endorsed SAFE strategy to eliminate blinding trachoma.
Sept. 17-20 | Hyderabad, India
IAPB 9th General Assembly
More than 1,000 delegates are expected at the meeting, whose theme is Eye Health: Everyone's Business. Trachoma and other Neglected Tropical Diseases that cause vision loss are on the agenda. The 9th General Assembly is a unique international event bringing together a wide spectrum of professionals, academics, policy makers, development experts and the industry.
Sept. 21-22 | Hyderabad, India
International Society for Geographical & Epidemiological Ophthalmology (ISGEO)
The Task Force for Global Health (parent of ITI and the Mectizan Donation Programme for Onchocerciasis Control) is supporting this meeting with a grant to ISGEO. Meeting themes include trachoma and onchocerciasis.
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