Lauren Turner – Intestinal worms affect up to half of East Timor's children and former president Jose Ramos-Horta is calling on Australians to help eradicate the "scourge" within five years.
The "very debilitating" worms result in malnutrition, anaemia and stunted growth, and can lead to children dropping out of school as they become too unwell to attend classes. "It really affects seriously a child developing in every sense," Dr Ramos-Horta told a gathering in Sydney.
A program to provide anti-parasitic drugs to Timor-Leste has been set up in a bid to combat the disease – the first project of the University of Sydney's Isin-Di'ak Fund which aims to improve the health of the people of East Timor.
Addressing a corporate breakfast in the CBD hosted by the Rotary Club of Sydney, Dr Ramos-Horta said rapid improvements in health were within reach.
"With the technical support of Sydney University medical school, our minister of health and a generous contribution from the Australian Federal Government and the Australian citizens, we can in five years see these problems eliminated in Timor-Leste," the Nobel Peace Prize Laureate said. "You are contributing to eliminating this scourge."
Dr Ramos-Horta said the program was "incredibly important" and encouraging as it's "doable within a relatively short period of time".
The program also aims to help the 23,000 East Timorese infected with elephantiasis, a parasitic disease that causes limbs to swell.
"This is a very cost-effective program that could eliminate two very significant diseases that cause a great deal of suffering," said Professor Peter McMinn, Bosch chair of infectious diseases at Sydney University.
About 5000 health volunteers will be trained to administer drugs to the East Timorese which have been donated by pharmaceutical companies. They aim to reach 80 per cent of the population of 1.2 million people – everyone over the age of one, with the exception of pregnant women.
It is hoped the first vaccinations will be given in June 2013 as part of the five year program.