Echinococcosis

Dear Colleagues,

Echinococcosis is a neglected tropical disease (NTD) that affects more than 1 million people living with this disease at one time, manifested mostly as cystic or alveolar echinococcosis (CE or AE, respectively). Many of these individuals will develop severe clinical syndromes, which are life-threatening if left untreated, and there are an estimated 19,300 deaths and around 871,000 disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) globally each year. As this is a zoonotic disease, there are also costs associated with cystic echinococcosis that are estimated to be US$ 3 billion for treatment and losses to the livestock industry (1). The World Health Organization´s response to this disease aims at strengthening control and prevention through the creation of an Informal Working Group on Echinococcosis (WHO-IWGE), in collaboration with strategic partners and relevant sectors (2). Therefore, the aim of the Special Issue is to gather studies that could help with the different aspects of the disease that need to be further developed, according to the new roadmap for NTDs 2020–2030 (3), namely:

• Diagnosis and associated clinical management of echinococcosis for the elaboration of technical manuals with practical applicability;
• Collection and mapping of epidemiological data in order to detect risk areas, establish priorities, and monitor progress and evaluate outcomes;
• Control measures taking dogs and livestock into consideration as part of a One Health approach (including innovative treatment and vaccines).

Submitted works could focus specifically on one of these aspects, or can describe control and prevention programs that take all of these aspects into consideration.   

1) WHO webpage. https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/echinococcosis. Accessed on February 9th 2021.

2) WHO, 2017. Meeting of the WHO Informal Working Group on Echinococcosis (WHO-IWGE), Geneva, Switzerland, 15–16 December 2016. Geneva, Switzerland: World Health Organization; 2017 (WHO/HTM/NTD/NZD/2017.01).

3) WHO 2021. Ending the neglect to attain the Sustainable Development Goals: a roadmap for neglected tropical diseases 2021-2030. Overview. Geneva, Switzeerland: World Health Organization 2020 (WHO/UCN/NTD/2020.01).

Dr. Maria Victoria Periago
Guest Editor

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• cystic and alveolar echinococcosis
• diagnosis
• clinical management
• epidemiological data
• One Health
• treatment
• vaccines