In Burkina Faso, one health programme is helping to transform the lives of thousands of people who are suffering from a disfiguring disease.

The disease is lymphatic filariasis (LF), a parasitic infection that can cause severe swelling of a person’s body parts. People with the condition often develop a permanent disability, which can leave them unable to work or care for their families. They can also be exposed to stigma and discrimination as a result of this.

Sightsavers is working with Burkina Faso’s government on an innovative programme – ARISE II – which is bringing new hope for these patients.

Among other areas, the programme supports doctors to treat men with hydrocele, a symptom of LF where the scrotum is painful and severely swollen. A simple operation can remove the swelling and help these men return to their normal lives. Surgeons in Burkina Faso performed more than one thousand of these operations in 2023.

One patient, Sabane Compaoré, explained: “I was taken care of, I had no complications, and now I feel very well. Today, I feel fine and go about my business without any problems. I’m no longer ashamed to walk around the city.”

Overcoming superstition and stigma

The programme is also helping to treat people with lymphedema, another complication of LF that involves swelling of the arms or legs.

There is no cure for this debilitating condition. However, patients can reduce their pain and swelling by washing the affected limb regularly, and by keeping it elevated for parts of the day.

The ARISE II programme is working to spread this message far and wide, using an army of ‘patient peer educators’. These are people living with LF themselves, who provide advice to other members of the community on how to take care of their swollen limbs.

The peer educators also play a role in tackling the superstitions surrounding LF – such as the belief that it is caused by evil spirits. These beliefs can contribute to the stigma that many patients face and can discourage them from seeking medical help.

Patient peer educator, Batawouni Tounissongo, said: “I’m going to try to guide all of those who suffer from this ailment to go and get treatment in hospital and, above all, to show them how to look after their feet.”

Protecting the population

As well as treating patients with LF, Sightsavers and the government of Burkina Faso are working to prevent people from catching this disease in the first place.

This relies on an effective strategy known as mass drug administration, which involves training large numbers of volunteers to hand out doses of medication within their local communities.

In 2024, the ARISE II programme supported volunteers to distribute preventative treatments for LF to more than 500,000 people in the country.

Emile Rayaisse, Sightsavers’ programme manager for neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in Burkina Faso, explains the programme is also focusing on “the digitisation of NTD data”.

The aim is to ensure that drug treatment data is recorded in the country’s health information system, so that the government can analyse the success of treatment campaigns and make decisions about how to improve them in the future.

The team at Sightsavers has also introduced a hydrocele tracker app, which can help to manage the performance of surgeons who carry out hydrocele operations and ensure patients receive the right aftercare.