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Global health programmes

In communities around the world, people affected by certain diseases face stigma and discrimination, disability and a vicious cycle of ill health and poverty. In the developing world, diseases that can be prevented, managed or cured cause significant suffering and mortality due to a lack of basic knowledge and inadequate health services. We support activities to tackle these diseases through donations of medicines, financial and practical support.

We have chosen to focus our efforts on lymphatic filariasis (LF) and malaria as well as diarrhoea-related disease in children.

Lymphatic Filariasis
Also known as elephantiasis or LF, this is a disfiguring disease found mainly in tropical countries. It is caused by a parasite and spread by mosquitoes. It is one of the world's major causes of permanent disability affecting over 120 million people.

We are a key member of the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis, a 20 year programme to eliminate the disease by donating our anti-parasitic medicine albendazole.

Malaria
Malaria is parasitic disease carried by mosquitoes that kills up to 3 million people a year and is the world's leading cause of childhood mortality.

Our African Malaria Partnership has supported education and behaviour change programmes in Africa through partnerships with non-profit organisations. They encouraged effective prevention and prompt treatment. In 2005 we launched ‘Mobilising for Malaria’, an advocacy initiative to help increase the world's attention on the problem.

Personal Hygiene and Sanitation Education (PHASE)
Every year more than two million people die of diarrhoea-related disease, mostly children in developing countries. These deaths can often be easily prevented through better hand washing and sanitation.

Established in 1988, PHASE is a low-cost education programme helping to reduce diarrhoea-related disease by encouraging school children to wash their hands.

PHASE currently operates in eight countries - Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, Zambia, Nicaragua, Peru, Mexico and Tajikistan- reaching more than 375,000 children and their extended families.