Morbidity management in the Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis: a review of the scientific literature

Table 2 Summary of studies that assessed the effect of antifilarial drug treatment on the clinical manifestations of "acute attacks"*, hydrocele, and lymphoedema.

Source	Acute Attacks*	Hydrocele	Lymphoedema	Drug	Drug delivery strategy	Follow-up interval
Ciferri 1969 [170]	+	--	--	DEC	MDA	2 years
March 1960 [171]	+	+	+	DEC	MDA	10 years
Bernhard 2001 [169]	.	--	.	DEC	MDA, clinical trial	1 year
Partono 1989 [172]	+	.	+	DEC	MDA, selective	11 years
Beye 1952 [173]	--	--	--	DEC	MDA, selective	16 months
Simonsen 1995 [174]	.	--**	.	DEC	Selective	1 year
Kessel 1957 [175]	+	.	.	DEC	Selective	1 year
Fan 1995 [176]	.	--	--	DEC	Salt	16–19 years
Meyrowitch 1996 [177]	.	+	+	DEC	Salt	2 years
Meyrowitch 1998 [178]	.	+	.	DEC	Salt	4 years
Meyrowitch 2004 [179]	.	+¶	.	DEC	MDA, salt	4 years
Hewitt 1950 [180]	+	+¶	+¶	DEC	Clinical trial	8–14 months
Das 2003 [167]	.	.	--	DEC	Clinical trial	1 year
Kenney 1949 [181]	.	.	+	DEC	Clinical trial	1–3 months
Pani 1989 [51]	.	.	+‡	DEC	Clinical trial†	>1 year
Moore 1996 [16]	.	.	+	DEC	Case report	1 week-7 months
Bockarie 2002 [18]	.	+	+	DEC, DEC+IV	MDA	5 years
Dunyo 2000 [182]	.	--	--	IV + Alb	MDA	1 year

* Acute dermatolymphangioadenitis and filarial lymphangitis were not distinguished in most studies
** 2 of 8 hydroceles resolved
¶Disease progression also observed
‡ Reductions seen primarily in patients with early-stage disease
† Included other interventions, but improvement related to number of DEC doses
+ Decrease in size, incidence, or prevalence noted (not necessarily statistically significant)
-- No decrease noted (or if noted, inconsistent or not considered significant by authors)
. Not evaluated or extremely small numbers
DEC Diethylcarbamazine
IV Ivermectin
Alb Albendazole
MDA Mass drug administration using tablets
Salt DEC-fortified salt
Selective Treatment only of persons known to be infected or with clinical disease