Weekly epidemiological record
9 October 2026
No. 40, 2026, 101, 284
More than 99% of the people requiring preventive chemotherapy (PC) for onchocerciasis live in 26 countries in Africa; the remainder live in Brazil, the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela, and Yemen. In 2025, 255.7 million people required PC for onchocerciasis, of whom 180.3 million were treated, representing 70.5% global coverage, the highest number of people ever treated for onchocerciasis in a single year.
This annual report from the World Health Organization covers the following information:
- Mass drug administration (MDA) for onchocerciasis by country, 2025
- The pathway to elimination of transmission
- Mid-term review of the NTD road map for onchocerciasis in the African Region
- Status of countries achieving neglected tropical diseases road map targets for onchocerciasis elimination, 2025
- High-level side event at the Seventy-ninth World Health Assembly
- Diagnostics: meetings of the onchocerciasis subgroup of the DTAG
- WHO guideline on alternative treatment strategies for parasitic infections
- WHO guideline on the diagnosis and management of loiasis\Forty years of the Mectizan Donation Programme
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