U.S. drug firm aids Vietnam

U.S. drug firm aids Vietnam

HANOI (AFP): U.S. pharmaceutical firm Pfizer Inc on Wednesday gave communist Vietnam drugs worth $16.8 million to help eradicate the blindness-causing disease trachoma in a move U.S. ambassador Pete Peterson hailed as a model of private charity.

The 1.2 million doses of the antibiotic Zithromax will be used to launch Vietnam's first large-scale public health drug donation program among the three million residents of the eight provinces where trachoma remains particularly prevalent.

The International Trachoma Initiative (ITI), a partnership between Pfizer and the New York-based charity, the Edna McConnell Clark Foundation, will donate a further $1.2 million for surgery, public education campaigns and the provision of clean water supplies to complement the two-year medication program.

Vietnam has made great progress in eliminating the disease, but 5.5 million Vietnamese still suffer from active trachoma, of whom around 900,000 face complications leading to blindness.