The University of Notre Dame Haiti Program, founded in 1997 by biologist Rev. Thomas Streit, CSC, is a world leader in the fight against lymphatic filariasis (LF), a disfiguring, mosquito-borne disease that afflicts more than 2 million Haitians.

In partnership with Hôpital Sainte Croix and the Haitian Ministry of Health as well as international partners, the program has grown from a public health research initiative based in the Haitian community of Léogâne to a national intervention with global impact.

With the goal of eliminating LF by 2020, Haiti Program researchers are focused on what public health officials call “mass drug administration”—giving medication to a whole population rather than individual patients. In this cost-effective and minimally invasive approach, residents receive the anti-LF drug in pill form. The program also fortifies and distributes salt containing both the anti-LF drug and iodine, which prevents mental impairment in children.

The Haiti Program is one of numerous projects associated with the Eck Institute for Global Health, an interdisciplinary, University-wide enterprise that brings together faculty, staff, and students from multiple colleges and departments to address complex questions relevant to global health.

Learn more: haiti.nd.edu