J GYAPONG, UNIVERSITY OF GHANA, FILARIASIS ELIMINATION IN AFRICA: REFINING THE STRATEGIES THROUGH RESEARCH

我过去10年在管理疾病干预方案、开展业务研究以及与国际伙伴成功合作倡议方面的记录表明，我有很强的领导能力。我拥有成功开展拟议工作所需的专业知识、领导能力和动力。我在被忽视的热带疾病的传播和控制方面有广泛的背景，在开展象皮病或淋巴丝虫病研究方面有专门的培训和专业知识。以大腿和阴囊为特征的象皮病，目标是到2020年在81个国家通过社区范围的治疗或大规模药物管理(MDA)消除象皮病。许多需要治疗的流行国家已经实施了丙二醛。在非洲，38个流行国家中有14个有有效的方案。加纳低收入方案于2000年启动，是非洲首批方案之一，取得了若干成功，但也面临着一些挑战。该病在美国约一半的地区流行。这使大约1000万人面临感染的风险。国家低收入国家方案的目标与全球目标一致。由于有60多个地区受到影响，这为通过业务研究应对该方案的挑战提供了一个很好的机会，该研究结果对整个非洲都有影响。这里提出的研究将解决与改善卫生服务提供相关的挑战，以加强在资源有限的情况下的MDA扩大和影响评估。它将为城市环境中淋巴丝虫病的社区指导治疗战略以及促进阻断低频传播的标准和干预措施制定新的方法。我们的目标是：1.提高治疗覆盖率，重点关注影响社区治疗依从性的社会和行为因素，并了解城市人口接受这些干预的动态。利用移动电话报告平台改进从社区到国家一级的报告的创新方式，以此作为加强卫生系统的一种手段。3.核实没有暴露、何时停止大规模用药(MDA)和有效的MDA后监测，以防止疾病再次出现。研究媒介控制对消除低频的额外益处，特别是在仅用丙二醛降低人类感染率无效的地区5。记录综合防治与其他被忽视的热带病对消除低频疾病和卫生系统的影响。6.在加纳公共卫生学院发展调查方法和社会科学领域的研究能力。

My track record, over the past 10 years in the management of disease intervention programmes, conducting operational research, and successful collaborative initiatives with international partners demonstrate strong leadership capabilities. I have the expertise, leadership and motivation necessary to successfully carry out the proposed work. I have a broad background in distribution and control of neglected tropical diseases, with specific training and expertise in conducting research on elephantiasis or lymphatic filariasis. Elephantiasis, characterised by enlarged legs and scrota, is targeted for elimination in 81 countries by 2020 through community-wide treatment or mass drug administration (MDA). Many endemic countries requiring treatment have implemented MDA. In Africa 14 out of 38 endemic countries have effective programmes. The Ghana LF programme which was initiated in the year 2000 as one of the first in Africa has had several successes as well as challenges. LF is endemic in about half of the country. This places approximately 10 million people at risk of infection. The objectives of the national LF programme are in line with the global objectives. With over 60 districts affected, this presents as good an opportunity for addressing the challenges of the programme through operational research with Africa wide implications for the findings. Research proposed here will address challenges related to improving health service delivery to augment MDA scale-up and impact assessment in resource constrained settings. It will develop novel approaches to the community-directed treatment strategy for lymphatic filariasis in urban settings and the criteria and interventions that facilitate interruption of LF transmission. We will aim at: 1. Improving treatment coverage focusing on social and behavioural factors affecting community treatment compliance and understanding the dynamics of urban populations in uptake of these interventions.2. Developing innovative ways of improving reporting from the community through to the national level using mobile telephony platforms for reporting as a means of strengthen the health system. 3. Verifying absence of exposure, when to stop mass drug administration (MDA) and effective post-MDA surveillance to prevent re-emergence of the disease.4. Studying the added benefit of vector control on LF elimination especially in areas where reduction in infection rates in humans has been ineffective with MDA only5. Documenting the effect of integrated control with other neglected tropical diseases on the elimination of LF and the health system. 6. Developing research capacity in the field of survey methods and the social sciences at the Ghana School of Public Health.