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New insights into the biology of filarial infections

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 June 2009

S. Specht  and
S. Wanji
S. Specht*
Affiliation:
Institute for Medical Microbiology, Immunology and Parasitology, University Hospital Bonn, Sigmund Freud Strasse 25, 53105Bonn, Germany
S. Wanji
Affiliation:
Research Foundation for Tropical Diseases and Environment, PO Box 474, Buea, Cameroon
*
*E-mail: specht@parasit.meb.uni-bonn.de
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Abstract

Recent successes in the control of lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis need continuing research in order to sustain the achievements and to develop further tools to tackle the new questions that arise when only reduced infection prevalences prevail. In this regard, in a symposium held at the Xth European Multicolloquium of Parasitology (August 2008, Paris) questions such as the impact of filarial immunosuppression, and its lack following filarial control, on the outcome of co-infections were addressed, as were new approaches to treatment with promising drugs such as moxidectin or the antibiotic chemotherapy against Wolbachia endosymbionts in filariae. In particular, longer treatment courses of doxycycline could be carried out by community-directed treatment at high coverage, thus potentially allowing its use in restricted areas with suboptimal responses to ivermectin against onchocerciasis, or in areas with co-infection by loiasis where onchocerciasis or lymphatic filariasis need to be controlled. New, more potent drugs, or eventually vaccines, will be of importance because in many vector–filarial parasite relationships worldwide, transmission efficacy increases with low numbers of ingested microfilariae, and since ivermectin may render treated hosts more susceptible to new infection.

Type
Review Article
Information
Journal of Helminthology , Volume 83 , Special Issue 2: Symposium and related papers from the 10th European Multicolloquium of Parasitology , June 2009 , pp. 199 - 202
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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