As part of global efforts to accelerate expansion of preventive chemotherapy (PC) for elimination and control of lymphatic filariasis (LF), schistosomiasis (SCH) and soil-transmitted helminthiases (STH), the World Health Organization (WHO) facilitates the supply of the following medicines donated by the pharmaceutical industry: diethylcarbamazine citrate, albendazole, mebendazole, and praziquantel. WHO also collaborates to supply ivermectin for onchocerciasis (ONCHO) and LF elimination programmes.

The WHO Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases (WHO/NTD) has developed a joint mechanism and a set of forms to facilitate the process of application, review and reporting as well as to improve coordination and integration among different programmes. The PC Joint Application Package (JAP) was released in 2013. Since then, countries have been using JAP to request PC medicines and to report epidemiological data as well as data on PC implementation. During the transition from the old to the new system, WHO/NTD collected feedback from countries and partners on the use of JAP. In 2015, the second version of JAP was released, addressing comments and suggestions received from end-users.

To further improve the functionality of JAP and to make it more user-friendly, WHO/NTD has developed a third version of JAP, which was released in December 2017. What are the new functions?

Customization

The new version of JAP uses customization to generate forms specifically for the diseases requiring PC in a country. It replaces previous multiple adaptations of the forms: for all four diseases, for non-ONCHO endemic countries and for STH-endemic countries only. This version requires users to complete information on the INTRO tab, to select the status of each PC disease and to indicate the number of implementation units (IUs) in a country. By clicking “Generate new forms”, the tool creates all the necessary tabs and indicators related to the diseases selected as requiring PC. Indicators and other information not related to endemic disease are not displayed. This simplifies the process of data entry, especially for countries endemic for one or two diseases. However, countries can display indicators for all four diseases by clicking “Restore full version”, if necessary..

Data validation

To assist programme managers to quickly identify cells with potential errors or data paradoxes, the new version of JAP includes macros that help to validate the data entered in the forms. Most of the tabs have two buttons (“Validation” and “Undo”) available to run these macros. For example, in the COUNTRY_INFO tab the validation macro highlights cells where data are missing but data entry is mandatory, and checks if the treatment strategy reflects the endemicity status of the diseases. If the wrong strategy is selected the cells are highlighted. To put cells back to their original colour code, the “Undo” button can be used.

The Joint Reporting Form (JRF) uses a validation macro in the PC-related tabs to validate data entered as target population and treatment coverage. If the target population of a specific age group is higher than the entire population of this age group in a district, then the cell is highlighted. Cells in which data are missing or entered wrongly are also highlighted. To help understand what type of mistake has occurred in the highlighted cell, users can place the cursor on that cell and read a comment added by the validating macro.

The programme coverage reported by countries can be also validated. This validating macro highlights cells in red for districts with reported coverage > 100%, in light red for districts with low coverage and in green for districts achieving effective coverage, according to a specific disease target. The button “Undo” can be used to deactivate changes made by the validating macro.

Analysis

In JRF, after data entry is completed, a country profile can be generated for the reported year. In the SUMMARY tab, by clicking on the “Generate country profile” button, users can generate a 2-page profile in PDF summarizing the results of PC implementation in a reporting year. It includes tabular and visual data representation of indicators related to PC as an intervention and also for the disease-specific indicators.

Other new functionalities

• The new version allows countries to revise the ranges for preschool-aged children (PreSAC), school-aged children (SAC) and adults. By default, the forms use the standard WHO ranges: PreSAC – 1–4 years of age; SAC – 5–14 years of age; and adults – 15 years of age and above. Where these ranges differ in a country, they can be revised in the INTRO tab. The proportion of population age groups should correspond to the selected age ranges.
• The new version of JAP includes an option to save files and to keep versions of the files. If any data updates have been made after the form was completed for a first time, by clicking on “Save Report/Request in EXCEL” users can save the form in a different file generated automatically, indicating the version and dates in a file name. This feature can help users to search for the most recent updated version of the form later on.
• For both Request and Report, users can export summary pages in PDF and print, sign and submit these files together with the JAP files in Excel.