Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis: Endgame Prospects, Challenges and Complexities

Dear Colleagues,

Lymphatic filariasis (LF) represents the first major neglected tropical macroparasitic disease chosen by the WHO for either elimination or eradication as a public health problem globally. Since its inception in 2000, the launch of the Global Program to Eliminate LF (GPELF), which espoused meeting the goal of eliminating this disease in all 73 endemic countries initially by 2020 through the application of annual mass drug administration (MDA) maintained over at least 4–6 years primarily, has led to major strides in reducing infection prevalences in virtually all endemic countries. This striking success has meant that many national LF programs are now beginning to enter the endgame phase of intervention, leading to increasing focus on how best to define and implement intervention stopping decisions and maintain transmission control or interruption over the longer term.

This Special Issue is dedicated to exploring and discussing the latest research on the ecological, programmatic, and surveillance complexities and challenges that arise during the endgame and beyond for achieving the elimination of this parasitic disease. Topics may include accelerating the interruption of transmission using emerging advances in chemotherapy, vector control, novel innovations in effective program delivery in difficult-to-control settings, including the use of social enterprises and community participatory approaches, modeling work that highlights the impact of spatial transmission heterogeneity and its impact as control/elimination nears and identification of best methods to maintain long-term transmission interruption, development of surveillance sampling, diagnostic tools, and methods for evaluating and supporting area-wide eliminination decisions, immunological and clinical studies of host responses and impact on morbidity outcomes under conditions of interventions, molecular approaches to investigating parasite and vector popution change and for drug discovery, the role and effects of multiparasitism, epdemiological studies of multisectoral and integrated approaches at the subnational, national, and regional levels, and social epidemiological investigations for designing and governing long-term sustainable control.

Prof. Dr. Edwin Michael
Prof. Dr. James W. Kazura
Guest Editors

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