The WHO Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (WHO/NTD) has developed a joint mechanism and a set of forms to facilitate the process of application, review and reporting data on implementation of preventive chemotherapy (PC) as well as to improve coordination and integration among different programmes. The PC Joint Application Package (JAP) was released in 2013. Since then, countries have been using JAP to request PC medicines and to report epidemiological and treatment data on PC implementation. During the transition from the old to the new system, WHO/NTD collected feedback from countries and partners on the use of JAP. In 2015, the second version of JAP was released, addressing comments and suggestions received from end-users. The third version of JAP was released in December 2017, addressing several issues, such as customization, data validation, analysis of reported data and including some improved functionalities.

In June 2022, WHO/NTD released a fourth version of JAP, to adapt the tool to the new treatment strategies for schistosomiasis (SCH) and soil-transmitted helminthiases (STH), as well as further improving the functionalities and making the interface more user-friendly. What are the new functions?

New treatment strategies

All forms were modified according to the new treatment strategies recommended for SCH and STH. For the in COUNTRY_INFO worksheet, the endemicity categories were revised (see table below).

Schistosomiasis	Soil-transmitted helminthiases
0 - non-endemic 4 - status unknown 5 - endemic, prevalence unknown	0 - non-endemic 4 - status unknown 5 - endemic, prevalence unknown
BASELINE SURVEY 1 - low prevalence (less than 10%), no MDA 2 - moderate prevalence (10%–49%), 1 round annually 3 - high prevalence (50% and above), 1 round annually and hot spots with additional round	BASELINE SURVEY 1 - low prevalence (less than 20%), no MDA 2 - moderate prevalence (20%–49%), 1 round annually 3 - high prevalence (50% and above), 2 rounds annually
IMPACT SURVEY 99 - prevalence < 1%, surveillance 11 – prevalence < 10%, 1 round every 2/3 years 21 - prevalence 10%–49%, 1 round annually 31 - prevalence > 50%, 1 round annually and hot-spots with additional round	IMPACT SURVEY 99 - prevalence < 2%, surveillance 11 - prevalence 2–9%, 1 round every 2 years 21 - prevalence 10%–19%, 1 round annually 22 - prevalence 20%–49%, keep baseline frequency 31 - prevalence > 50%, 3 rounds annually

 For lymphatic filariasis (LF) and onchocerciasis (ONCHO), one new category was added – “19 – endemic, pending impact survey”.

IDA therapy

The forms were adapted to request medicines and report data on implementation of IDA therapy (ivermectin + diethylcarbamazine citrate + albendazole) against LF. If a country is eligible and plans to implement IDA, the tool will generate the required indicators.

New donation

In 2022, the Memorandum of Understanding with pharmaceutical partners (GlaxoSmithKline and Johnson & Johnson) has been extended and it becomes possible to get a donation of anthelminthic medicines also for preschool-aged children and women of reproductive age (mebendazole only). Using the new JAP v.4.0, countries have an opportunity to request PC medicines for these age groups to treat people against STH. 

Data validation

To assist programme managers to quickly identify cells with potential errors or data paradoxes, the JAP includes macros that help to validate data entered in the forms. The first validation macros were introduced in the JAP v.3. In the new version these macros were improved to cover a wider area where any mistakes in data entry may occur. There are two buttons (“Validation” and “Undo”) available to run these macros. Cells where data require further validation will be highlighted after running the “Validation” macros. The button “Undo” can be used to deactivate changes made by the validating macro.

Other new functionalities and structure

The new version of JAP allows users to filter any data in the worksheets. When filtering data, the numbers in the row for totals are aggregated according to the selection by filter.

The structure of some worksheets was revised to capture data on additional indicators and make the interface for data entry and analysis more user-friendly. These modifications are listed below:

• COUNTRY_INFO worksheet (JRSM and JRF) – population requiring PC for SCH and STH is calculated by age group;
• DISTRICT worksheet (JRF) – analysis of population who received treatment for SCH and STH is compiled by age group;
• SUMMARY worksheet (JRSM and JRF) – the structure was modified to accommodate additional tables;
• SHIPMENT worksheet (JRSM) – the selection of values from the drop-down menu uses a cumulative method.