World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Control of Lymphatic Filariasis, James Cook Univerity, Australia

The School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine (SPHTM) has been involved in lymphatic filariasis research since 1980 and a "Filariasis Control Group" was established within the school in 1993. The WHO conferred the status as a Collaborating Centre for Control of Lymphatic Filariasis in 1996.

In 1999 the Global Program to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis established a network of "Technical Support Centres" for evaluating control strategies, developing and disseminating materials, conducting operational research, developing mapping techniques and testing drugs. James Cook University (JCU) was designated as one of these Support Centres. Others are located at Recife, Brazil; Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University; Carter Center, Atlanta and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine.

In June 1999 WHO, in conjunction with the Secretariat of the Pacific Community (SPC) facilitated a meeting (held in Brisbane, Australia) of public health professionals from the Pacific countries. This resulted in the formation of the Pacific Initiative for the Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis (PacELF). The corner stones of the program are the mapping of filariasis distribution and prevalence and the interruption of transmission by annual mass drug administration (MDA) using a combination of Diethylcarbamazine (DEC) and Albendazole.

The JCU Lymphatic Filariasis Support Centre (LFSC) has been involved in PacELF from its inception and the director, Dr Wayne Melrose, is a member of the program review committee (PacCARE).

Key Functions of the Centre are:

• providing training necessary for effective filariasis control programs;
• providing expertise in the epidemiological assessment of the prevalence and distribution of lymphatic filariasis in the Asia Pacific region;
• assisting in the design and delivery of country-specific filariasis control strategies and programs;
• providing expertise in program assessment and monitoring;
• supporting on-going research and development of filariasis diagnostic tools.

Contact details for the Centre are: