As a young girl in the port city of Karaikal in southern India, Usha was a promising maths student who enjoyed school. At the age of 13 she began to show the disfiguring swelling in her legs symptomatic of infection with filarial worms, and the other pupils started to tease her. Soon the teasing was too much to bear, and Usha left school without any qualifications.

Now 51, she has never married or had any children, and works as a housekeeper for her nephew - when her condition allows.

Usha won’t die from lymphatic filariasis (LF), but it has ruined her life. In her own words, she has “missed everything in life” as a result of the disease.

What is LF?

LF is transmitted by mosquitoes. It is more commonly known as elephantiasis, a name which graphically describes the unsightly hardening and thickening of the skin that frequently accompanies massive swelling in the arms, legs, breasts and genitals.

LF is one of the principal causes of permanent disability worldwide, affecting more than 120 million people in tropical and sub-tropical areas of Africa, Asia, the Pacific, the Middle East and the Americas.

Although the swelling – otherwise known as lymphoedema - is enough to prevent sufferers from leading a normal life, it is the acute feverish attacks that cause them the most discomfort. These attacks occur regularly – perhaps as often as twice a month – and each attack can last for up to seven days, making it impossible to work. 

But disability and fever is only half the problem for sufferers of LF. The disease also carries with it a heavy social burden. For men, the genital damage is a severe handicap leading to sexual disability, poor self-image and social stigmatisation. Men and women affected by lymphoedema are often considered undesirable, and can be severely stigmatised. Marriage - usually an essential source of security - is often impossible for those with chronic symptoms.

What are we doing about it?

We are an active partner in one of the world’s biggest and boldest public health initiatives - the international effort led by the World Health Organization (WHO) - to rid the world of LF.

As part of our commitment, we have donated nearly three billion treatments of our anti-parasitic treatment albendazole. Our aim is to donate as much albendazole as required to treat the 1.3 billion people in 72 countries who are at risk from this disease.

We recently expanded our albendazole donation programme to treat school age children at risk of intestinal parasites, known as soil-transmitted helminths (STH). The WHO reports that over 600 million school-age children are infected with intestinal worms which can lead to physicial, nutritional and cognitive impairment. 

This expansion equates to a donation of up to one billion albendazole tablets each year through 2020 to fight two devastating diseases.