Second only to malaria as the most devastating parasitic disease in the world, schistosomiasis annually infects 200 million people and claims 200,000 lives. Another 800 million people are at risk, predominantly across Africa, eastern Latin America and southeast Asia. While there are existing cures, reinfection rates are very high.Jason Rohr, the Ludmilla F., Stephen J. and Robert T. Galla College Professor of Biological Sciences and chair of the biology department, works in more than 20 Senegalese villages alongside local partners such as Espoir Pour La Santé (EPLS) and Station d’Innovation Aquacole to address issues related to schistosomiasis.The infection is caused by a parasite that resides on snails, which live in weedy rivers and lakes where people drink, bathe, and launder. Rohr realized the number of parasites would decrease if the number of snails decreased, which could be achieved if the weeds decreased. Working alongside local partners in St. Louis, Senegal, they started weeding the water. Immediately, disease reinfection rates fell. What’s more, the villagers used the weeds to feed livestock and as compost fertilizer to increase food production. This became an added incentive for the community to remove the vegetation. A simple solution helped solve problems in disease, energy, and food scarcity.Learn more: https://go.nd.edu/InfectiousDiseaseWWYFF
More from What Would You Fight For?
- 2:01Fighting to End PovertyIn Dandora, Kenya, a sprawling neighborhood in Nairobi, housing for 250,000 people is built around the city’s largest dumpsite. Life near a large trash heap exposes the population to problems ranging from illness to unemployment to extreme poverty.Many of the town’s residents spend their days wading in the trash, looking for bits of aluminum and plastic that they can exchange for a few dollars to support their family. Others, typically women, run roadside stands selling goods like fruit or medications. For many families, the profits from these microenterprises are the only way to put food on the table or to send children to school.Notre Dame and its Ford Program in Human Development Studies and Solidarity have been invested in Dandora for several years. Research projects and a Holy Cross parish have taken root. In speaking with the local population about their needs, the Ford Program asked a trio of Notre Dame economists — Wyatt Brooks, Kevin Donovan and Terry Johnson — to come to Dandora to explore problems surrounding unemployment.For more information: http://ntrda.me/FFEndPoverty
- 2:01Fighting for the Lives of ChildrenWhen your child is diagnosed with a rare, genetic disease, it feels like you’re rolling down a mountain, just waiting to hit rock bottom, says Doug Berns. When his daughter, Samantha, was diagnosed with Niemann-Pick Type C, an incurable, neurodegenerative disorder, he and his wife watched as Samantha’s energy depleted, her balance became shaky, and her laughter quieted.At Notre Dame, researchers in the Boler-Parseghian Center for Rare and Neglected Diseases seek to identify and advance treatments for a number of rare diseases, including Niemann-Pick Type C.For more information: http://ntrda.me/LivesofChildren
