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| Boy ingesting DEC tablet as part of a large-scale lymphatic filariasis treatment campaign in Bangladesh |
The United Nations Prequalification of Medicines Programme – a United Nations Programme managed by WHO – yesterday announced the prequalification of a medicine for the treatment of a neglected tropical disease.
Lymphatic filariasis: a disfiguring and incapacitating disease
Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) form a group because all are strongly associated with poverty,
flourish in impoverished environments and thrive especially in tropical areas. Lymphatic filariasis,
commonly known as elephantiasis, is one of these. Over 120 million people are currently infected with lymphatic filariasis, about 40 million of whom are disfigured and incapacitated by the disease. A further 1.4 billion people, most of whom are among the world’s poorest are at risk. Approximately 65% of those infected live in the WHO South-East Asia Region, 30% in the African Region, and the remainder in other tropical areas.
mosquitoes. When a mosquito with infective stage larvae bites a person, the parasites are deposited on the person’s skin from where they enter the body. The larvae then migrate to the lymphatic vessels where they develop into adult worms in the human lymphatic system. Infection is usually acquired in childhood, but the painful and profoundly disfiguring visible manifestations of the disease occur later in life. Whereas acute episodes of the disease cause temporary disability, lymphatic filariasis leads to permanent disability
Progressing towards elimination
In Asia, the Middle East and some countries in East Africa, control and elimination of the disease
could be achieved through expansion of large-scale preventive chemotherapy interventions. The
recommended regimen for treatment through mass drug administration is a single dose of two
medicines given together — albendazole (400 mg) plus DEC in areas where onchocerciasis is not
endemic, or ivermectin, in areas where onchocerciasis (river blindness) is also endemic. These medicines clear microfilariae from the bloodstream; at least five rounds of treatment are required to eliminate lymphatic filariasis in a given population.
