Seven pills a year means peace for billions of people suffering from tropical diseases worldwide, according to a lecture Tuesday.

Self-proclaimed “pill roller” Dr. Frank O. Richards Jr. said this dosage, dubbed “the poor man’s vaccine,” alleviates and can cure the incapacitating symptoms of tropical diseases including onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis and schistosomiasis.

Richards, a director at the Carter Center, said local governments in infected countries do not perceive these diseases as immediate threats because they are not fatal and are omitted from governmental health care efforts.

“We hope that by bundling the treatments into an annual dosage of pills, we will set up a system that will continue into perpetuity,” Richards said. “And politicians will realize its importance and take on the job.”

Richards said bundling was a system that provided treatments for the three diseases in one yearly dosage of pills. Symptoms include blindness, severe skin irritation and elephantitis.

He said mass distribution of medicine was the most effective way to curb and eventually eradicate the diseases. The programs have helped treat more than 100 million people with donations from pharmaceutical companies, he said.

“What is incredible about this program is how cheap these drugs are in relation to the drugs we pay for in America,” journalism professor Patricia Thomas said.

Richards said the average cost of the pill treatment is $3, but with pharmaceutical companies’ help, it ends up costing only 50 cents.

He said the program has been successful by weaving African relations into distribution.

“The treatment can be delivered on bicycle by locals – illiterate people can do this,” he said. “Also, by engaging people at that level, you can eliminate the issues of paying people to distribute the drugs.”