“…In 1999, Samoa was the first country to roll out MDA using a combination of DEC and albendazole as the PacELF strategy. 4 By the end of 2001, 11 more countries and territories also rolled out their MDA campaigns successfully using this double-drug therapy. Annual rounds of MDA have continued throughout the Pacific, and by the year 2020, 8 of 16 LF-endemic countries and territories (50%)—namely, Kiribati, Niue, Palau, Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Cook Islands, Tonga, Wallis and Futuna, and Vanuatu—had achieved elimination of LF as a public health problem and received validation of that status by the WHO.…”