WINGS-4-FGS

For millions of women and girls across sub-Saharan Africa, living with pain, stigma, and silence has been an unspoken reality. Female Genital Schistosomiasis (FGS), a neglected disease caused by parasitic infection, affects an estimated 50 million women and girls, with another 150 million at risk. Despite its devastating impact including infertility, pregnancy complications, increased HIV risk, and social exclusion, FGS remains largely invisible in medical curricula, public health programmes, and global health priorities.

The WINGS-4-FGS project is a pioneering initiative working in Côte d’Ivoire, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ghana, Madagascar, and Malawi. It brings together 10 partners from Africa and Europe built on a simple but powerful idea: that in addition to improving treatment, tackling FGS requires awareness, innovation, research, and policy change working hand in hand.

The project will:

• Raise awareness and reduce stigma through community campaigns and healthcare worker training.
• Innovate diagnosis with new community-based, accessible tools that bring screening closer to women.
• Develop new treatment options, testing the potential of repurposed anti-inflammatory medicines to address the disease manifestations of FGS.
• Integrate FGS care into health systems, ensuring sustainability through evidence-based guidelines, policy engagement, and partnerships with ministries of health.

At the heart of WINGS-4-FGS is the conviction that scientific progress and community empowerment must move together. The project’s clinical trials will test new approaches to treatment, while its awareness campaigns and training will strengthen local healthcare systems and reduce stigma.