Diagnostic test for surveillance of lymphatic filariasis: target product profile

Overview

The WHO Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) manages a diverse portfolio of twenty diseases, each with its own unique epidemiological and diagnostic challenges. It was decided by the Strategic and Technical Advisory Group (STAG), the principal advisory group to WHO for the control of NTDs, that a single WHO working group would help ensure that a unified approach could be used to identify and prioritize diagnostic needs, and to inform WHO strategies and guidance on the subject.

The purpose of this TPP is to communicate the minimum and ideal characteristics desired to meet the need for discriminating low levels of risk for transmission, i.e. targeted prevalence thresholds in the surveyed areas. An in vitro diagnostic test is needed for the detection of analyte(s) specific to Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi, and Brugia timori to aid in the surveillance of defined geographic areas as to whether infection and/or transmission potential has increased (recrudescence) or decreased (elimination of transmission).