Mathematical models can guide and inform public health policies and treatment strategies. Current research by the NTD Modelling Consortium has provided insights into the World Health Organization’s guidelines for the control and elimination of schistosomiasis
A recent study in Burkina Faso showed that genetic diversity in strains of malaria resulted in different degrees of disease severity and showed evidence of competition between strains.
New analytical techniques have been developed to evaluate the effectiveness of mass drug administration campaigns and inform progress towards elimination.
An international consortium of scientists, the anti-Wolbachia consortium (A∙WOL), aimed to discover novel treatments for filarial diseases by targeting the parasite’s endosymbiotic bacterium, Wolbachia. Through collaboration with a global pharmaceutical company (AstraZeneca), they achieved the first ever industrial scale high-throughput drug discovery screen for filariasis. This resulted in the identification of five novel, fast acting compounds.
For two decades albendazole has been donated for lymphatic filariasis mass treatment programs. An updated Cochrane Review investigates the effectiveness of albendazole for lymphatic filariasis.