Objective 1: Drug Regime Refinement
To refine existing regimes of drugs with known activity against Wolbachia to provide alternative treatment in the event of the development of resistance or poor- responsiveness within the timeframes of existing Mass Drug Administration (MDA).
Field trials will define the shortest regime of these treatments, which is effective at permanently sterilizing or killing adult worms.
Since the antibiotics will act directly on the Wolbachia, which is a different mode of action to current anti-filarial drugs, it can be expected that the antibiotics tested in this project will also be effective against drug-resistant worms.
These regimes will also define optimal individual drug therapies that could be used in people leaving control areas, in areas co-infected with loiasis and those wishing to avoid or improve clinical pathology.