Tenth meeting of the Working Group on Monitoring of Neglected Tropical Diseases Drug Efficacy

Helminth control programmes based on preventive chemotherapy against soil-transmitted helminthiases and schistosomiasis are continuing to scale up. In 2021, the global coverage of preventive chemotherapy reached 62.2% for soil-transmitted helminthiases and 40.3% for schistosomiasis; more than 650 million individuals were treated with albendazole and mebendazole for soil-transmitted helminthiases and with praziquantel for schistosomiasis.

The expansion of preventive chemotherapy can potentially risk triggering anthelminthic drug resistance and put at stake the long-term public health benefits of the intervention. Antimicrobial resistance is not yet a public health problem in human helminthiases, as opposed to helminths of veterinary importance.

The Working Group on Monitoring of Neglected Tropical Diseases Drug Efficacy (“the Working Group”) was established by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2011 with the purpose of promoting:

• the establishment of a standard system for monitoring drug efficacy;
• the judicious use of anthelminthics in order to sustain their efficacy and delay antimicrobial resistance; and
• the testing of alternative drugs and drug combinations, should antimicrobial resistance emerge for the front-line drugs presently used in preventive chemotherapy programmes.

The tenth meeting of the Working Group was held at Ghent University (Ghent, Belgium) on 21 June 2023. The meeting was chaired by Professor Jozef Vercruysse (Ghent University). The rapporteurs were Dr Bruno Levecke (Ghent University) and Dr Denise Mupfasoni (WHO Global Neglected Tropical Diseases Programme).

The objectives of the meeting were:

• to review the data on monitoring the efficacy of anthelminthics currently used in large-scale deworming programmes for soil-transmitted helminthiases and schistosomiasis;
• to review the need for, and recommend the revision of, the WHO guidance on monitoring drug efficacy in large-scale deworming programmes; and
• to review ongoing research on anthelminthic drugs (combinations).