From 1974 to 2000, the Program for Tropical Disease Research invested more than $90 million to improve health in the developing world by concentrating on diseases that affect millions of people but receive little attention or funding. The Foundation made its biggest investment in and greatest impact with a control strategy for preventing blindness caused by trachoma, an infectious disease that thrives in areas of Africa, Asia, and Latin America where clean water is scarce. Caused by the bacteria Chlamydia thrachomatis, trachoma begins with infection in early childhood and, if not prevented or controlled, can lead to blindness much later in life.

With Foundation support and collaboration, a control strategy was designed that combines surgical and medical treatments with behavioral and environmental changes to curb trachoma at the community level. It is known by the acronym SAFE: Surgery, Antibiotics, Face washing, and Environmental change. By the mid-1990s, SAFE had shown remarkable results in extensive field tests and international collaborations in some of the worst-affected nations.

The potential for eradicating the disease took an exceptional leap forward in 1998 when Pfizer, Inc. agreed to lend financial support and make an unprecedented donation of approximately $60 million worth of its antibiotic, Zithromax®, which has proven highly effective against trachoma, to implement SAFE. In September of that year, the Foundation formed its first partnership with a for-profit entity, establishing with Pfizer the International Trachoma Initiative, which coordinates and oversees implementation of the SAFE strategy.

To learn more about the International Trachoma Initiative and its progress toward eradicating trachoma by 2020, visit the organization's website www.trachoma.org.

The Program for Tropical Disease Research also supported research to identify vaccines for schistosomiasis (known commonly as snail fever), a parasitic disease that can result in liver fibrosis or kidney failure, and onchocerciasis (known as river blindness), an infectious cause of blindness triggered by parasitic worms and spread to humans by black flies. As the leading private funder of research in these areas when it concluded its involvement in 1999, the Foundation attracted new scientists to the fields, greatly advanced the state of research, which continues today supported by private and public sources, and fostered research and development capacity in key institutions.  The program was led by Dr. Joe Cook, who later became the president of the International Trachoma Initiative.

Additional Resources
The Edna McConnell Clark Foundation's Tropical Disease Research Program: A 25-Year Retrospective Review 1976-1999.
This report documents and details the Foundation's commitment to the Program from its inception in 1973 and an analysis of its successes until the completion of the Program in 1999.  download report