With little fanfare, a Georgia-based Christian group, Medical Assistance Programs International, ships medicine donated by U.S. pharmaceutical companies to impoverished people across the world.

Last year, MAP shipped $400 million in donated medicine out of its Brunswick warehouse. It also has offices in Savannah and Atlanta.

Now MAP, operating in the shadow of better-known Georgia-based organizations such as CARE International and the Carter Center, is launching an additional project. It is attacking 14 “neglected" tropical diseases that do not get the attention or funding of illnesses such as HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis.

MAP hopes to raise $1.1 million by February for the effort, its president and CEO Michael Nyenhuis told GlobalAtlanta.

“We’re hoping to catch people’s attention so that they will rally around this,” said Mr. Nyenhuis. “There are nearly a billion people who have been affected by these diseases. We feel like they have been neglected too long.”

Many people probably have never heard of some of the diseases. One is Buruli ulcer, a leprosy-like skin disease. If it is caught early, when a small nodule appears on the skin, it can be easily treated, even without hospitalization. If left untreated, the disease can spread to the muscles, causing deformity and life-threatening infections.

The key is to educate people to spot the disease early and get treatment, said Mr. Nyenhuis.

Chagas disease is another ailment on the MAP hit list. It is a parasitic illness spread by an insect called the vinchuca.  “Half the population of Bolivia is infected,” said Mr. Nyenhuis. It causes long-term damage to the body, including the heart. “As soon as this thing bites you, you lose 15 years of your life,” said Mr. Nyenhuis.

The disease can be prevented simply by using plaster to seal the walls of homes, giving the bugs fewer hiding places.

MAP, founded 1954 in Chicago, has nearly 300 employees worldwide and is already working on prevention programs throughout the world on many of these diseases, including Chagas. It worked with the Carter Center to eradicate Guinea worm in Cote d'Ivoire. 

MAP, which moved from Chicago to Brunswick in 1985 to be closer to warm-water ports for drug shipments, hopes its new initiative will bring more attention and funding to programs attacking the 14 tropical diseases, which include cholera, dengue fever, sleeping sickness, elaphantiasis, trachoma and several types of intestinal worms.

“It’s almost unconscionable that more isn’t being done,” said Mr. Nyenhuis. “These diseases can be defeated.”

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