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NEW THIS WEDNESDAY: GLOBAL PROGRAMME TO ELIMINATE LYMPHATIC FILARIASIS: PROGESS REPORT, 2011

Tuesday, 27th of August 2013

• GLOBAL PROGRAMME TO ELIMINATE LYMPHATIC FILARIASIS: PROGRESS REPORT, 2011

Excerpt below; full text is at http://www.who.int/wer/2012/wer8737.pdf

 

Lymphatic filariasis (LF) is one of the oldest and most debilitating of the neglected tropical diseases, caused by 3 species of filarial parasites and transmitted by mosquitoes.

 

An estimated 120 million people in 73 countries are currently infected, and an estimated 1.393 billion live in areas where filariasis is endemic and mass drug

administration (MDA) is required. LF is the second leading cause of chronic disability worldwide due to its stigmatizing and disabling clinical manifestations, including

15 million people with lymphoedema (elephantiasis) and 25 million men with urogenital swelling, principally scrotal hydrocele.

 

The Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (GPELF) has been one of the most rapidly expanding global health programmes in the history of public

health. GPELF was launched in 2000 with the goal to eliminate LF as a public health problem by 2020. GPELF aims to (i) interrupt transmission using combinations

of 2 medicines delivered to entire populations at risk – MDA, and (ii) manage morbidity and prevent disability.

 

Preventive chemotherapy is the primary form of control and elimination of LF.1 WHO recommends 4 sequential programmatic steps to interrupt transmission

(Figure 1): (i) mapping the geographical distribution of the disease; (ii) MDA for ≥5 years to reduce the number of parasites in the blood to levels that will prevent mosquito vectors from transmitting infection; (iii) surveillance after MDA is discontinued; and (iv) verification of elimination of transmission.1

 

Of the 73 countries where LF is currently considered endemic, 53 are implementing MDA to interrupt transmission, of which 12 countries have moved to a post-

MDA surveillance phase. During 2000–2011, >3.9 billion doses of medicine were delivered to a cumulative targeted population of 952 million people.