Application of the Filariasis CELISA Antifilarial Antibody Assay in Surveillance in Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Programmes in the South Pacific.pdfVIP

Hindawi Publishing Corporation Journal of Tropical Medicine Volume 2011, Article ID 492023, 8 pages doi:10.1155/2011/492023 Research Article Application of the Filariasis CELISA Antifilarial IgG4 Antibody Assay in Surveillance in Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Programmes in the South Pacific Hayley Joseph,1 Fuatai Maiava,2 Take Naseri,3, 4 Fasihah Taleo,5 Malakai ‘Ake,6 Corinne Capuano,7 and Wayne Melrose1 1 Lymphatic Filariasis Support Centre, School of Public Health, Tropical Medicine and Rehabilitation Sciences, James Cook University, Townsville, QLD 4811, Australia 2 World Health Organization, Apia, Samoa 3 Ministry of Health, Apia, Samoa 4 National Health Service, Apia, Samoa 5 Vector Borne Disease Unit, Ministry of Health, Port Vila, Vanuatu 6 Ministry of Health, P.O. Box 59, Nuku’alofa, Tonga 7 World Health Organization, 50490 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia Correspondence should be addressed to Hayley Joseph, hayley.joseph@.au Received 26 May 2011; Accepted 21 July 2011 Academic Editor: Aditya Prasad Dash Copyright © 2011 Hayley Joseph et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Elimination of lymphatic filariasis (LF) in the Pacific Island Countries and Territories (PICT) has been defined as 0.1% circulating filarial antigen (CFA) prevalence in children born after the implementation of successful mass drug administrations (MDAs). This research assessed the feasibility of CFA and antibody testing in three countries; Tonga, Vanuatu, and Samoa. Transmission is interrupted in Vanuatu and Tonga as evidenced by no CFA positive children and a low antibody prevalence a