Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (GAELF)
The Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis was created with the aim to eliminate one of the world's leading causes of disability and disfigurement as a public health problem by the year 2020. One hundred and twenty million people in at least 80 countries of the world are infected with lymphatic filarial parasites, and it is estimated that 1 billion (20% of the world's population) are at risk of acquiring infection. Initiated by the World Health Organization and GlaxoSmithKline in 1998, the Global Alliance has evolved into a global partnership between international organizations in the public and private sectors, academia and non-governmental organizations working in partnership with ministries of health in tropical countries where lymphatic filariasis (LF) is endemic. Merck & Co., Inc. joined the Alliance in 1998 when it widened the scope of its Mectizan® Donation Program to include LF in African countries where river blindness and LF co-exist.

The World Health Organization currently recommends that lymphatic filariasis be treated with a combination of either: albendazole (donated by GSK) plus DEC; Mectizan® (donated by Merck) plus albendazole. Treatment for people living in endemic areas is recommended once a year for five years to break the cycle of transmission. In 2004 GSK donated 67 million treatments of albendazole to prevent transmission in at least 37 countries in the African, American, Eastern Mediterranean, Mekong, Indian Sub-continent and Pacific regions. Over the next 20 years GSK expects to donate up to 6 billion preventative albendazole treatments to any of the 80 endemic countries that are accepted into the program by the WHO. Merck donated 20 million treatments of Mectizan® to LF programs in 7 African countries and Yemen in 2003. Merck & Co., Inc., and GSK have also provided grants to support partners in research programs, coalition building, workshops and communications. Nearly 85 million people - 30 million of whom are children - have begun to be protected from LF.