Novartis and the Novartis Foundation have been working with partners around the world to eliminate leprosy for over 30 years, and to eliminate malaria for over 20 years.

The Novartis Foundation leprosy program

Leprosy is one of the oldest diseases known to man, but about 200,000 new patients are still diagnosed every year and an estimated 2-3 million people live with physical disability and stigmatization because of the disease. Novartis Foundation leprosy initiatives have included the Leprosy Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (LPEP) Program, the Leprosy Alert and Response Network System (LEARNS), and AI4Leprosy.

Little girl showing her arm, leprosy post exposure prophylaxis program

Leprosy Post-Exposure Prophylaxis (LPEP) Program

LPEP showed how providing preventative treatment to close contacts of newly diagnosed patients can help accelerate leprosy elimination.
Image of three women presenting LEARNS App on their mobile phones

The Leprosy Alert and Response Network System (LEARNS)

LEARNS was the Philippines’ first mobile phone-based leprosy detection system.
Person taking photo with its mobile phone of a leprosy lesion for AI-enabled and accelerated leprosy detection

AI4Leprosy

The Foundation is working with partners to use the world’s latest technologies to speed-up elimination of one of the oldest diseases.

 

The Novartis Foundation malaria program 

Despite the tremendous progress made in combating malaria, one child still dies from the disease every two minutes. According to the WHO, there were 228 million cases of malaria in 2018, with an estimated 405,000 deaths. The Novartis Foundation’s efforts to tackle this disease included a targeted parasite elimination (TPE) strategy.

Testing of a child for malaria in Namibia by taking blood from the child's finger tip

Malaria TPE Strategy

Defining the optimal strategy to interrupt malaria transmission and strengthening health surveillance and response capabilities.

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