Training Workshop on the New Guidance on Monitoring and Evaluation of Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Programmes
29-31 May 2012 / Manila, Philippines
Lymphatic filariasis (LF) is endemic in 22 countries and areas of the Western Pacific Region. The Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis has set its goal for 2020. Considerable progress has been achieved in most LF endemic countries in the Region. China, the Republic of Korea and Solomon Islands were verified by WHO as having eliminated lymphatic filariasis in 2007, 2008 and 2011, respectively. Niue and Tonga have completed all post-mass drug administration surveillance surveys and lymphatic filariasis elimination is expected to be verified in 2013, with American Samoa, Cambodia, Cook Islands, the Federated States of Micronesia, the Marshall Islands, Tuvalu, Vanuatu and Viet Nam to follow by 2016.
In 2011, the WHO Department of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) produced a new manual on the monitoring and epidemiological assessment of mass drug administration for national LF elimination programmes. This workshop will provide training for NTD programme managers and LF focal points on how to implement this new guidance and adapt it to the national context. To facilitate this, a training curriculum has been developed by WHO and its partners.
Objectives of the training workshops are:
- to strengthen the knowledge and skills of NTD programme managers and lymphatic filariasis focal points to conduct monitoring and epidemiological assessment of mass drug administration for LF, based on the new WHO manual;
- to develop a workplan to implement LF transmission assessment surveys (TAS) in each country/area; and
- to strengthen the knowledge of NTD programme managers and LF focal points to compile dossiers for the verification of lymphatic filariasis elimination.