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Dynamically Addressing ‘Global Health Challenges’ Pfizer Battles Trachoma In Children



05/10/2018

Pfizer finds promising results in the mortality reduction among children who combating trachoma.


Dailycsr.com – 09 May 2018 – According to the results of a new studies conducted by the “New England Journal of Medicine”, with the use of “an antibiotic” children can experience a significant reduction in mortality. The study area involved “three low-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa”.
 
Scientists from the “University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)” led this study funded by the “Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation”, whereby the study revealed that even consuming a “single dose of a Pfizer oral antibiotic” in an interval of “six months”, there was 13.5% drop in the number of deaths of the children below the age of five in “Niger, Malawi and Tanzania”.
 
The results coming from across the countries exhibited certain variation, while the “largest mortality reduction” occurred by 18% in Niger which also happened to have the “highest child mortality rate among the three countries”. During the course of the study, antibiotics that are “orally-administered” have been donated by Pfizer.
 
In order to grasp a better understanding of the antibiotic’s “potential role” in bringing down child mortality across the globe, further studies are needed to be conducted. Trachoma is an infectious tropical disease which has been neglected widely even though it has been the “leading” “cause of blindness” all over the world. Pfizer has entered into a partnership for eliminating this disease, whereby the company has donated over “730 million doses of the same antibiotic”.
 
Furthermore, Pfizer will keep collaborating with “academic investigators, partner organizations and other stakeholders” in order to find out the best method of dealing with the disease for it “pertains to the study results and public health impact”. In the words of the executive vice president of Pfizer’s “Corporate Affairs”, Sally Susman:
“Pfizer takes pride in our innovative approach to partnerships that enables us to apply our full resources – our people, medicines and vaccines, and funding – to dynamically address global health challenges. We look forward to continued collaboration to determine how Pfizer can support ongoing discussions of the implications of the study and future scientific investigation.”
 
The study reached out to communities at random and involved over “190,000 children” between the age of “1 month to 5 years old”. According to the analysis of a study on age effects conducted by a subgroup, the above mentioned age group of children benefited the maximum, as their mortality rate fell by 25%. Nevertheless, advanced studies are required to shed more light for determining the benefits of the treatment.
 
However, the Pfizer Worldwide Research and Development’s Vice-President, “MD” as well “MPH”, Charles Knirsch who himself is a researcher of infectious diseases and has also facilitated “Pfizer’s donation of antibiotic for the elimination of trachoma since 1997”, said:
“Reductions in mortality of this magnitude are promising and merit further exploration to determine how this antibiotic, which has been very effective in helping to combat trachoma, may play a role in reducing child mortality”.
 
 
References:
3blmedia.com