Providing evidence-based guidance to countries for onchocerciasis elimination

WHO provides Member States with evidence-based recommendations to aid decision‐making and national policy development on strategies to eliminate and control neglected tropical diseases (NTDs). Preventive chemotherapy with ivermectin is used to treat onchocerciasis and eliminate transmission of Onchocerca volvulus infection. WHO provides strategic technical guidance at each stage of onchocerciasis elimination programmes, from disease mapping, programme planning, implementation, and monitoring and evaluation.
To help discharge this important role, WHO has established an Onchocerciasis Technical Advisory Subgroup comprising high-level research and academic scientists, partners and representatives of endemic countries to address technical and operational challenges reported from endemic countries, review results from ongoing research and establish priorities for new research aimed at developing and applying improved strategies for achieving the elimination targets. To provide additional considerations for national policy decisions, WHO publishes the summaries and conclusions of technical meetings, which are available below in the section publications