NewsWhore
10-03-2008, 04:40 PM
The US Carter Center, through the ITFDE in Atlanta, Georgia will begin a joint campaign to accelerate the elimination of malaria and lymphatic filariasis in Haiti and the Dominican Republic. The initiative stems from a 2006 recommendation from the Carter Center's International Task Force for Disease Eradication (ITFDE) - a group of 12 global experts on infectious disease funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation - that it is technically feasible to eliminate the two parasitic diseases on Hispaniola. According to Diario Libre, the island of Hispaniola is the only part of the region that is still heavily affected by malaria. Health officials from both countries will concentrate their efforts on border towns near the Rio Masacre, including Ouanaminthe and Dajabon. Trou du Nord in Haiti will also receive funding for the eradication programs. As part of the efforts mosquito nets, insecticides and other equipment will be purchased and distributed in the border towns.
The Carter Center explains that the elimination of the disease would improve not only health, but would also improves economic opportunity, including agriculture and tourism in both countries. It estimates the Dominican Republic lost approximately US$200 million in tourism due to an outbreak of malaria in 2004. Mobile Haitian workers that commute back and forth between both countries are said to be the main transmitters of the disease in the DR. The experts also warn that as long as malaria exists in Hispaniola, the disease threatens neighboring islands, including Jamaica and the Bahamas, which in the past two years have experienced brief malaria outbreaks originating in Hispaniola.
Malaria was eradicated in the DR in the 1970s, but not in Haiti, thus the new focus to eliminate the disease in both parts of the island.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#9)
The Carter Center explains that the elimination of the disease would improve not only health, but would also improves economic opportunity, including agriculture and tourism in both countries. It estimates the Dominican Republic lost approximately US$200 million in tourism due to an outbreak of malaria in 2004. Mobile Haitian workers that commute back and forth between both countries are said to be the main transmitters of the disease in the DR. The experts also warn that as long as malaria exists in Hispaniola, the disease threatens neighboring islands, including Jamaica and the Bahamas, which in the past two years have experienced brief malaria outbreaks originating in Hispaniola.
Malaria was eradicated in the DR in the 1970s, but not in Haiti, thus the new focus to eliminate the disease in both parts of the island.
More... (http://www.dr1.com/index.html#9)