GLIDE: Yemeni Doctor Wins Global Disease Elimination Award to Help Keep the Country Free of Lymphatic Filariasis

Dr Abdul Samid Al-Kubati, a doctor who is leading Yemen's efforts to keep the country rid of lymphatic filariasis (LF) has won a Falcon Award for Disease Elimination. The five winners were announced yesterday by the Global Institute for Disease Elimination (GLIDE) during a Universal Health Coverage Day event at EXPO 2020 Dubai.

Dr Al-Kubati's project is aimed at sustaining the achievement of eliminating LF as a public health problem in Yemen, as validated by the World Health Organization in 2019.

His project will deliver effective, efficient, quality and affordable health services to mitigate the impact of LF, leprosy and river blindness (also known as onchocerciasis) to improve the overall health status for Yemenis and accelerate national economic growth and sustainable development.

Dr Al-Kubati beat 220 applicants across 44 countries to become the first Yemeni winner of the Falcon Awards.

Commenting on his selection, Dr Al-Kubati, Technical Manager of the National Leprosy Elimination Program in Yemen, said: "I am delighted to have been selected as a winner of the Falcon Awards. The state of lymphatic filariasis in Yemen is in post-elimination as a public health problem. Through our partnership with GLIDE, we hope to sustain this elimination through morbidity management and disability prevention."

Launched in April this year by GLIDE, the Falcon Awards aim to discover and implement innovative approaches to disease elimination which focus on eliminating one or more of GLIDE's four focus diseases: malaria, polio, lymphatic filariasis and river blindness.

The winners were selected by a jury of global health experts including Professor Maha Taysir Barakat, Board Chair of the RBM Partnership to End Malaria; Dr Sarthak Das, Chief Executive Officer of the Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance; Dr Tunji Funsho, Chair of Rotary's National PolioPlus Committee; and Dr Katey Owen, Director of Neglected Tropical Diseases at The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Simon Bland, Chief Executive Officer of GLIDE, said: "Innovation is vital if we want to eliminate ancient diseases of poverty. The quality of applications we received from individuals and organisations based in disease-endemic countries, is testament to the will to consign these diseases to the history books. We just need to act on it. We are immensely grateful to our jury, who took time out of their demanding day jobs to select five winners from our 10 talented finalists. Above all, we look forward to working with the winners over the coming year, bringing their innovative disease elimination strategies to life."

For more information on The Falcon Awards for Disease Elimination and the winners, please visit: https://glideae.org/awards

For photos of the winners, please click here.

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About GLIDE

GLIDE is a new global health institute, based in Abu Dhabi, focused on accelerating the elimination of four preventable diseases of poverty: currently malaria, polio, lymphatic filariasis, and river blindness, by 2030 and beyond.

Founded in 2019 as the result of a collaboration between His Highness Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, GLIDE identifies the latest scientific, cultural, and global health knowledge and puts it into action with its partners through programmes, funding, and skills development to support local health care systems and advance global thinking.

For more information, please visit: https://glideae.org/

About the Falcon Awards for Disease Elimination

Launched in April 2021 by GLIDE, the Falcon Awards for Disease Elimination aim to advance the elimination of one or more of GLIDE's four focus diseases: malaria, polio, lymphatic filariasis, and river blindness.

The Awards invited submissions from organisations in disease-endemic countries whose proposals address cross-border, cross-disease, cross-programme, or cross-sector approaches to disease elimination.

Five winners are selected to receive a grant of up to USD200,000 to implement their proposals, along with technical and advocacy support from GLIDE.

For more information, please visit: https://glideae.org/falcon-awards/