A more coordinated, national approach to parasite control would have substantial benefits
In January 2000 the World Health Organization launched a program aimed at global elimination by 2020 of the lymphatic filarial parasites Wuchereria bancrofti and Brugia malayi. These parasites together infect in excess of 120 million people, and cause significant morbidity through elephantiasis. A major stimulus to the implementation of this and other programs, such as those aimed at the elimination of leprosy and Chagas' disease, was the successful global elimination of smallpox in 1977, and major advances in programs to control polio, measles, dracunculiasis (guinea worm) and onchocerciasis (river blindness). So, what of Australian parasite control programs?
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- 1 School of Population Health, University of Queensland, Herston, QLD.
- 2 Kimberley Public Health Unit, Derby, WA.
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