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Timothy G. Geary, Charles D. Mackenzie, Adding “Filaricide” to the Gleevec Portfolio, The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Volume 212, Issue 5, 1 September 2015, Pages 677–680, https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiv062
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(See the major article by O'Connell et al on pages 684–93.)
Although great strides have been made in reducing the incidence and public health impacts of many parasitic infections in the past 2 decades, much work needs to be done to accelerate achievement of the Millennium Development Goals as interpreted in the 2012 London Declaration, a gathering of leaders from governments, nongovernmental institutions and major pharmaceutical companies that calls for the elimination of a number of helminth infections of humans by 2020 [1, 2]. The targeted infections include many so-called neglected tropical diseases, caused primarily by nematodes.
Of particular interest are filariases, systemic diseases caused by parasitic nematodes that have been targeted for control for several decades; these diseases include onchocerciasis (“river blindness”), due to Onchocerca volvulus, and lymphatic filariasis (LF, or elephantiasis), caused primarily by Wuchereria bancrofti [3]. These filariae infect >100 000 000 persons, with a billion or so residing in areas at risk for transmission. They are vector-borne infections, arising from the transfer of infectious larvae to humans by the bite of black flies in the genus Simulium (onchocerciasis) or by a variety of mosquito species (LF). These filariases are characterized by the presence of adult parasites residing in nodules, some palpable under the dermis and some deeper (O. volvulus) or in lymphatic vessels (LF species). Fertilized female parasites release thousands of larvae (microfilariae [mf]) that inhabit the skin (onchocerciasis) or the blood (LF), where they can be ingested by an appropriate arthropod vector, undergo additional development, and be reintroduced to a new host in a subsequent bite.
