A meeting of the Regional Programme Review Group on lymphatic filariasis elimination and other preventive chemotherapy programmes was organized by the WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean Region in Khartoum, Sudan, from 17 to 19 November 2014.

The meeting was attended by representatives from the ministries of health of Afghanistan, Egypt, Sudan and Yemen. Endemic disease experts attended as WHO temporary advisers, while WHO staff served as the meeting secretariat.

The overall objective of the meeting was to review progress made by national control programmes covering lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis and soiltransmitted helminthiasis in the Eastern Mediterranean Region during 2014 and learn from each other successes and failures.

The specific objectives of the meeting were to:

• inform country representatives on the global and regional status of control and elimination of neglected tropical diseases, and to provide them with normative and operational updates and guidance;
• discuss country-based plans of action for 2015; and
• approve drug requirements for preventive chemotherapy to be implemented in 2015.

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