Reducing the population requiring interventions against lymphatic filariasis in Africa.

The slow progress in endemicity mapping of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) in Africa and scaling up of mass drug administration (MDA) in all endemic countries has hampered efforts to meet the London Declaration's 2020 elimination and control targets. Lymphatic filariasis is targeted to be eliminated by 2020; but by the end of 2012, 11 of the 73 countries currently endemic for the disease had not completed the endemicity mapping to define the true number of people requiring interventions. Ten of the 11 partly mapped or unmapped countries were in Africa, where 35 countries are known to be endemic for this disease.