PERSPECTIVE article
Front. Trop. Dis.
Sec. Neglected Tropical Diseases
Volume 6 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fitd.2025.1605161
Toward Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Progress, Perspectives, and Strategic Directions
Provisionally accepted
- 1Programme de lutte contre les maladies tropicales négligées de la RDC, Kinshasa, RDC, Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo
- 2The END Fund, New York, United States
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
The Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) has achieved important milestones in its national effort to eliminate lymphatic filariasis (LF), a disfiguring neglected tropical disease (NTD) that historically threatened more than 53 million people. Despite persistent challenges related to financing, infrastructure, and geography, the national program has reached 100% geographic coverage of endemic implementation units (IUs) and has successfully transitioned nearly 40% of targeted populations out of mass drug administration (MDA) for LF. This Perspective article highlights this promising progress in the DRC by tracing the trajectory of LF control in the DRC-from early mapping and pilot efforts to nationwide scale-up-and discusses the critical elements enabling this progress, including community engagement, diagnostic innovation, integrated delivery platforms, and strategic partnerships. The article also highlights the urgent need for sustained investment in light of recent global health funding cuts, which risk reversing decades of progress. Finally, it explores the path forward toward achieving WHO's 2030 elimination goal, stressing the importance of data-driven approaches and post-treatment surveillance.
Keywords: lymphatic filariasis, Democratic Republic of Congo, elimination, Mass drug administration, neglected tropical diseases, WHO Targets, integrated health interventions
Received: 02 Apr 2025; Accepted: 04 Jun 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Mupoyi, Kalenga, Zongo, Mberu and Awaca Uvon. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Kelly Ann Zongo, The END Fund, New York, United States
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.