Placer Dome's earlier efforts at battling lymphatic filariasis, a horrible parasitic infection, led to a 20-fold reduction in cases.

ECONOMIST: Companies and health

The goal is to eliminate the following diseases by 2020: Guinea worm, leprosy, lymphatic filariasis, blinding trachoma and sleeping sickness.

BBC: Plan to cut burden of tropical disease

Americans and Europeans rarely suffer from schistosomiasis, which afflicts 200m people worldwide, or lymphatic filariasis, which makes life miserable for another 120m.

ECONOMIST: Helping the poorest