The Carter Centre has successfully treated 36.1 million people with Albendazole and Mectizan, the preventive chemotherapy for Lymphatic Filariasis (LF), a Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) in Plateau and Nasarawa States.

Carter Centre’s Director of Integrated Health Programmes in charge of Plateau, Nasarawa and Ebonyi States, Dr. Abel Eigege, disclosed this on Sunday at Seri, Kanke Local Council of Plateau, in commemoration of the year 2022 World NTD Day.

The director said the international non-governmental organisation (NGO) successfully carried out over 10,000 surgeries of LF (elephantiasis and hydrocele).

“As part of our success story, we interrupted the transmission of guinea worm in 2008 and successfully eradicated it, leading to the certification of Nigeria as guinea worm-free in 2013.

“We started the Oncho programme in 1992. By 2017, we interrupted the transmission and eliminated the transmission in 2021. It is a milestone in the sense that Plateau and Nasarawa are the only states that have eliminated Onchocerciasis (river blindness). They are also the only states that have eliminated LF,” he stated. 

Plateau NTD Coordinator, Philemon Dagwa, lauded Carter Centre for its interventions that saved many lives.

“Carter Centre has been working on the Plateau for more than two decades and so many diseases have been eradicated. Government had been driving the system by making available their staff to support Carter Centre,” he added.