Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis: Annual report on lymphatic filariasis 2000

Overview

After millennia of suffering, centuries of neglect, decades of research and years of programme development the world finally launched, in the year 2000, a Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (LF). Inauguration of this Programme at London’s Royal Society for Tropical Medicine & Hygiene in January 2000 was followed in May of that year by the first meeting of the Global Alliance, a unique partnership of public-sector and private-sector organizations committed to eliminating lymphatic filariasis, with the World Health Organization (WHO) serving as Secretariat.

By the end of 2000 fully 23 of the 80 endemic countries had completed national plans of action to eliminate lymphatic filariasis, 12 had already initiated programme activities and over 3 million individuals had received drugs during the start-up phase of these activities.