Guidelines for stopping mass drug administration and verifying elimination of human onchocerciasis: criteria and procedures; 2016

The purpose is to provide an updated tool for achieving and verifying elimination of transmission of O. volvulus at the end of onchocerciasis elimination programmes using mainly MDA. Th e objectives are: • to provide evidence-based recommendations to health providers and policy-makers in order to demonstrate and confi rm the interruption of transmission of O. volvulus before, during and aft er post-treatment surveillance; and • to inform end-users of the procedures required for verifying the elimination of human onchocerciasis.

The target audience of these guidelines is policy-makers in endemic countries, national neglected tropical disease or onchocerciasis elimination programmes and those involved in verifi cation of elimination of human onchocerciasis.