Community Management

To eliminate lymphatic filariasis (LF) as a public health problem it is essential to reduce the spread of infection. Levels of worm larvae (microfilaria) in the blood of infected persons must be reduced or eliminated so that mosquitoes cannot transmit the worms from one human to another. Elimination of transmission of the disease is a more ambitious goal than control of the disease, and requires high levels of coverage of the population with mass drug administration (MDA) so that all transmission leading to new cases of the disease will eventually die out, and an area can then be certified as free of the disease.  A few patients may continue to present with the disease due to the lasting effects of the original infection but these individuals will no longer be carrying the parasite at levels that can maintain the infections to persist in the population.

The followiing tabs are a brief description of the commmunity management process, however, full detail can be found in the WHO Programme Managers Guide of 2000, which remains the current guide .