Two Decades of Public Health Achievements in Lymphatic Filariasis (2000–2020): Reflections, Progress and Future Challenges
In December 2020, we published a special issue of Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene, entitled Two decades of public health achievements in lymphatic filariasis (2000–2020): reflections, progress and future challenges.
We are delighted that so many of the major players in this journey have agreed to contribute to this supplement, which tracks the successes in lymphatic filariasis and identifies the challenges faced over two decades of work as well as also looking towards the coming years.
All the articles, which are are open access and free to read, have been written by world-renowned global health experts, including Dr Mwelecele Malecela, director of the Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases at the World Health Organization.
Thank you to our funders GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and MSD, via the Mectizan Donation Programme, and Eisai, through the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (GAELF), for making this issue possible.
Guest editors
The guest editors for the special issue, Two Decades of Public Health Achievements in Lymphatic Filariasis (2000–2020): Reflections, Progress and Future Challenges, are:
Professor David Molyneux:
A British parasitologist who served as the Director of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.
Professor John Gyapong:
A Ghanaian Professor of Epidemiology and the Vice Chancellor of the University of Health and Allied Sciences, Ho Ghana.
Dr Kapa Ramaiah:
A Consultant Epidemiologist working with the Indian Council of Medical Research’s Vector Control Research Centre (VCRC) in Pondicherry, India.
Articles
Editorial
Mwelecele Malecela, John Gyapong, K D Ramaiah, David Molyneux
Review
Eric A Ottesen, John Horton
Aya Yajima, Kazuyo Ichimori
> Progress and impact of 20 years of a lymphatic filariasis elimination programme in South-East Asia
D Ramaiah Kapa, Ahmed Jamsheed Mohamed
> African regional progress and status of the programme to eliminate lymphatic filariasis: 2000–2020
Kebede Deribe, Didier K Bakajika, Honorat Marie-Gustave Zoure, John O Gyapong, David H Molyneux, Maria P Rebollo
> Progress towards elimination of lymphatic filariasis in the Eastern Mediterranean Region
Reda M R Ramzy, Abdul Samid Al Kubati
> Progress towards elimination of lymphatic filariasis in the Americas region
Gilberto Fontes, Eliana Maria Mauricio da Rocha, Ronaldo Guilherme Carvalho Scholte, Rubén Santiago Nicholls
> Health economic analyses of the Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis
Hugo C Turner
> The role of medicine donations in the global programme for the elimination of lymphatic filariasis
Tijana Williams, Rachel Taylor, Minne Iwamoto, Takayuki Hida, Fabian Gusovsky
Gary J Weil, Julie A Jacobson, Jonathan D King
Simon Bush, Frank O Richards, Jr, Yaobi Zhang
Patrick J Lammie, Katherine M Gass, Jonathan King, Michael S Deming, David G Addiss, Gautam Biswas, Eric A Ottesen, Ralph Henderson
> Caring for patients in the global programme to eliminate lymphatic filariasis
Charles D Mackenzie, Sunny Mante
Alison Krentel, Margaret Gyapong, Deborah A McFarland, Olumide Ogundahunsi, Christiana R Titaley, David G Addiss