The DOLF team, led by Peter Fischer, along with partners at the University of Indonesia and Bruyere Research Institute, has been awarded a new $1.8 million grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to explore lymphatic filariasis (LF) elimination in Indonesia.
Previously, this collaboration was supported by the 2020 McDonnell Academy seed grant initiative on infectious diseases and the impact of Covid-19. That project helped develop a COVID mitigation protocol that allowed the team to resume their filariasis research during the pandemic.
The new study will explore four closely-linked objectives to address why LF has returned to the Belitung region. The DOLF team seeks to provide both the Indonesian Ministry of Health and the World Health Organization with valuable data to inform other elimination programs elsewhere in Indonesia as well as throughout South-East Asia.