Dr. Christopher King and his team from Case Western Reserve University and Dr. Alison Krentel from the Bruyere Research Institute in Ottawa have returned to East New Britain to continue their research. Dr. Krentel will train local staff on procedures for assessing the acceptability of the triple drug mass drug administration that was provided province-wide last November. Project staff will also begin collecting mosquitoes in the most highly endemic villages for molecular xenomonitoring studies. The visit started with a meeting with officials from the PNG Ministry of Health and health officials from the province, researchers from the PNG Institute of Medical Research, and Dr. Makoto Sekihara from JICA, Japan. Teresa Tufte and Dr. Peter Fischer from the DOLF team at Washington University joined the meeting for discussions. Although this research project is not focused on management of LF morbidity, visits in high prevalence villages in the Duke of York islands illustrated the importance of taking time to talk to people with clinical filariasis in study areas (see photos). The MDA program aims to cure filarial infections, block transmission, and prevent new cases of the disease.
