IMA physician presents at NTD Roundtable

Dr. Abdel Dirény, Country Program Manager for IMA's Haiti office, addressed the Roundtable on Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) on August 19 at the Global Health Council in Washington, DC.

NTDs include 14 diseases, most of them parasitic, afflicting more than a billion people worldwide. IMA currently manages NTD treatment for more than one million people in Haiti; program expansion through 2011 will enable IMA to treat more than four million Haitians.

"A key reason for IMA's success in Haiti is the efficiency of our drug procurement system," said Dr. Dirény. IMA uses annual doses of two medicines to prevent and treat lymphatic filariasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis, which can lead to extreme, painful swelling of the limbs, and intestinal worms, which often cause abdominal pain and diarrhea.

IMA's program is part of a $100-million, five-year initiative launched in 2006 by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) to integrate NTD programs, eliminate duplication of effort, increase efficiency, and treat greater numbers of people at lower cost. USAID's long-term goal is to treat 40 million people in 15 countries.

Photo courtesy of Andrea Peterson, RTI International.

IMA is part of a consortium that supports the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education. IMA leads the implementation of the USAID funded program activities through the NTD Control Program of RTI International.