United Kingdom

UK Department for International Development

 

  • DFID provided funding for the measles vaccination initiatives throughout southern Africa, to supplement the resources provided by the region’s ministries of health. The campaign helped reduce the number of measles cases from 60,000 in 1996 to just 117 cases four years later; the number of measles deaths fell from 166 to zero.
  • In collaboration with the Carter Center and twelve other countries, the UK has provided financial support for the guinea worm eradication programs in Africa and Asia. Since the start of the campaign in 1986, disease prevalence has dropped 99 percent and the number of cases has fallen from 3.5 million to less than 35,000.
  • The UK was one of 22 donor countries that contributed sizable financial assistance to the onchocerciasis control program in west Africa. As a result of the program, transmission was halted in 11 west African countries; 600,000 cases of blindness were prevented; and 22 million children born in the program area are now free from the risk of river blindness. Furthermore, 25 million hectares of arable land - enough to feed an additional 17 million people - are now safe for resettlement
  • The UK contributed just over $1 million to the global smallpox eradication campaign between 1967-1979. Smallpox was eradicated in 1977.

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