Haiti Program at Notre Dame

Saved millions of Haitians from a devastating infectious disease.

Rev. Thomas G. Streit, C.S.C.
Research Assistant Professor of Biological Sciences

In 1998, after years of researching mosquito--borne infections with the Centers for Disease Control, Rev. Thomas Streit ('80, '85) founded the Haiti Program at Notre Dame with the goal of eradicating lymphatic filariasis (LF), which afflicts nearly a quarter of all Haitians. LF is rarely fatal, but its toll is devastating: identifiable by their grossly swollen limbs, victims are shunned by family and community, robbed of their dignity and often their livelihood. It is, as Father Streit notes, a disease whose geographic range maps perfectly with the poorest of the poor. Backed by the Gates Foundation, Father Streit has become not merely a scientist and public health administrator, but a priest and a friend to the millions of Haitians he has impacted over the past two decades. Under his leadership, the Haiti Program has collaborated with the Haitian Ministry of Public Health and the CDC to build clinical and research programs at the Hôpital Sainte Croix, educate Haitians about the benefits of bed nets and good hygiene to ward off infection, fortify the island's salt supply with drugs to kill the parasitic worms that cause LF, and administer those same drugs directly to more than three million Haitians. Father Streit's efforts are on target to altogether eliminate LF from Haiti by 2013. A 1980 graduate of Notre Dame, he was ordained a priest of the Congregation of Holy Cross in 1986. He earned a doctorate in biological sciences under the supervision of Notre Dame professors George Craig and Paul Grimstad.

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Tags:

• notre
• dame
• university
• haiti
• science
• lymphatic
• filariasis
• disease
• control

[tianglade]

Again the only thing I can say: God is taking Notes...May God Bless you...