Cystic echinococcosis in the Eastern Mediterranean region: Neglected and prevailing!

Cystic echinococcosis (CE) is distributed worldwide, extending from China to the Middle East and from Mediterranean countries to the sub-Saharan Africa and South America. According to WHO, one million people around the world are suffering from CE with an estimated burden of 183,573 DALYs. The annual monetary burden of the disease due to treatment costs and CE-related livestock losses has been estimated at US$ 3 billion. CE is endemic in all countries within the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Regional Office (EMRO). The region, which includes most of the Middle East and North Africa, is one of the most ancient foci of the domestic cycle of CE and is recognized as one of the major hotspots of CE. There are 22 countries in the EMRO, where about 688 million people are living at risk of CE. In many EMRO countries, little is known about CE epidemiology and transmission. WHO included echinococcosis in a list of 17 neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) and 12 neglected zoonotic diseases (NZDs). Accordingly, different regional offices of WHO organized several initiatives for CE control and prevention. WHO’s Western Pacific regional office considered echinococcosis as one of the region’s major health topics, and several preventive measures have been implemented in the American region with the support of Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) in Argentina, Peru, Uruguay, and Chile. Although CE is endemic in all 22 EMRO countries, surprisingly, CE is absent from the health topics list of diseases and conditions in this region. Therefore, CE clearly requires further attention in the WHO EMRO agenda, and the need for elaboration of specific measures for CE control is becoming apparent in EMRO countries, where substantial collaborations among the member states and WHO EMRO is of paramount importance. Major topics of collaborative activities include training programs and health communication on different aspects of CE control, analysis of CE burden, national and international surveillance and disease registry systems, technical support to promote epidemiological studies for collecting baseline data, cost–benefit analysis of control interventions, and intersectoral cooperation among the agriculture, veterinary, medical, and health sectors.