Your Gifts at Work: October-December 2021
LepVax Update | Jagruti Bihar Milestones | IME Kimpese Water System Project | Biomeme Training with Partners
First Leprosy-Specific Vaccine to Resume Trials
After delay due to COVID-19 and other factors, we are obtaining approval from Brazil’s regulatory body, ANVISA, to begin the Phase 1b/2a clinical trial for LepVax, the first leprosy-specific vaccine. American Leprosy Missions has been developing Lepvax for nearly 20 years. Now, with our partner Fiocruz, we look forward to resuming the trial process in April. Your faithful partnership has made this next step possible—thank you!
Milestones for India WASH Project
We’ve reached several landmarks in our women-led water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) project in Bihar, India. A household survey is complete, along with registering people suffering from leprosy and a related disease, lymphatic filariasis. These activities provide us with critical information about how best to serve these communities. We also have feedback from 130 villages about their WASH priorities, giving us a clearer vision for the work to come. Thank you for supporting these projects that keep communities healthy and prevent diseases like leprosy!
Updated Water System for IME Kimpese Hospital
Our Christian partner hospital in DR Congo, IME Kimpese, experiences frequent disruptions to its water supply. This issue affects basic hospital operations like surgeries and cleaning schedules. Thanks to your gifts, we are refurbishing Kimpese’s backup water system so the hospital can continue its work when the public water source is unreliable. Thank you for supporting our partner hospitals and their life-saving work!
New Tools for Tackling Disease
In December, our Director of Research and Innovation, Dr. Sundeep Chaitanya, traveled to India and Nepal to train several of our partners on Biomeme qPCR systems and the MinION platform. These portable tools are a faster, easier way for technicians to diagnose COVID-19 or detect drug resistance in a leprosy patient. Since these tools can be used in the field instead of a laboratory, people affected can get the tests and treatment they need more quickly. Official registration is underway so our partner hospitals can use Biomeme qPCR systems to diagnose COVID-19 in India and Nepal.
Hope Starts With Healing
Right now, men, women, and children are suffering—isolated by disease, alone in their pain, and without hope. But together, we can change that.
From delivering critical medicines and supplies to equipping pastors with training and resources to care for their communities, we are reaching even the most marginalized people with the healing and hope they most desperately need. With your support today, Hope Rises!
