The World Health Organization (WHO) has today congratulated three more countries in its Western Pacific Region for having eliminated lymphatic filariasis as a public health problem. Palau, Viet Nam and Wallis and Futuna join 11 other countries1 validated by WHO for achieving this milestone, signalling continued global progress against this profoundly disfiguring and disabling neglected tropical disease.
Letters of acknowledgement were presented to representatives of all three countries from Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, and Dr Shin Young-soo, WHO Regional Director for the Western Pacific, during the Regional Committee for the Western Pacific which opened today in Manila, Philippines.
Lymphatic filariasis (also known as elephantiasis) is an infection transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. The painful and profoundly disfiguring visible manifestations of the disease – lymphoedema, elephantiasis and scrotal swelling – occur later in life and can lead to permanent disability. Patients are not only physically disabled but also suffer mental, social and financial losses contributing to stigmatization and poverty.
Elimination of lymphatic filariasis is possible by stopping the spread of infection through large-scale treatment (called mass drug administration) delivered in annual doses to all at-risk individuals in endemic areas. The medicines have a limited effect on adult parasites but effectively reduce the density of microfilariae in the bloodstream and thus prevent the spread of parasites to mosquitoes.
The Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis
In 1997, the Fiftieth-World Health Assembly resolved to eliminate lymphatic filariasis as a public health problem (Resolution WHA50.29).
In 2000, WHO launched the Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (GPELF), which has the goal of eliminating the disease as a public health problem by 2020. The aims of GPELF are (i) to interrupt transmission of infection through mass drug administration in affected areas and (ii) to alleviate suffering through the provision of a basic package of recommended care, referred to as morbidity management and disability prevention or MMDP.
Elimination as a public health problem means reducing the number of infections in affected areas to below target thresholds at which transmission is assumed no longer sustainable and delivering MMDP in all areas with known patients.
The disease
Lymphatic filariasis is one of 15 neglected tropical diseases endemic in the WHO Western Pacific Region. Infection, which is usually acquired in childhood, causes hidden damage to the lymphatic system. Manifestations of the disease occur later in life and lead to permanent disability. For people affected by this disease, the impacts of disfigurement and the associated stigmatization are profound: people often lose their livelihoods and suffer from depression and anxiety as a result.
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1Countries that have been validated by WHO for eliminating lymphatic filariasis as a public health problem are: Cambodia, Cook Islands, Egypt, Maldives, Marshall Islands, Niue, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Togo, Tonga and Vanuatu.