Abstract
There are seven filarial parasites affecting over 100,000,000 individuals worldwide (Table 1) (1) . Despite these impressive statistics as recently as 15 years ago, filariasis was still considered to be a “primitive” discipline. The initiation of the UNDP/World Bank/WHO Special Programme in Tropical Disease Research (TDR) has highlighted the importance of filariases, and advances in immunology have led to an increased awareness of many issues of great practical significance. While the prospects for further advances are promising, there still remain a number of significant hindrances. From a positive perspective, these will become challenges for future work. The purposes of this review are to summarize our understanding of the filariases, to identify why we have not progressed further, and to suggest a direction for future research on filarial infections and disease.
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Ottesen, E.A. (1992). Filariasis: Present Status and Future Challenges. In: Walker, D.H. (eds) Global Infectious Diseases. Springer, Vienna. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-3449-8_10
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-7091-3449-8_10
Publisher Name: Springer, Vienna
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