The federal government joined other governments, drug companies, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and international groups Monday in a concerted effort to wipe out neglected tropical diseases such as lymphatic filariasis (often called elephantiasis because it causes extremities to swell up), leprosy and Chagas diseases.
Drug companies pitched in 14 billion treatments while the US Agency for International Development gave announced an $89 million appropriation from Congress to strengthen drug delivery and distribution. The World Health Organization says 1 billion people worldwide — one person in seven — suffer from such tropical diseases, spread by worms, flies, mosquitoes, bacteria and parasites.
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