Mapping of lymphatic filariasis: "to be (in English) or not to be".

Despite lack of supporting evidence from epidemiologic studies and/or confirmed case reports over the last 30 years, maps in non-specialist works on tropical medicine as well as in documents from specialized organizations (e.g. WHO) systematically include Congo and Gabon, two French-speaking countries, within the zone of endemic filariasis due to Wuchereria bancrofti. One certainty is that no cases were found in field studies carried out in these countries in the late 1970s and 1980s but unfortunately published only in French. Studies that we carried out in the Congo between 1982 and 1987 as part of the National Project on Onchocerciasis and Other Filarioses confirmed the presence of four types of human filariasis: onchocerciasis, loaiasis filarioses caused by Mansonella perstans and M. streptocerca. However, there were no confirmed cases of lymphatic filariosis (bancroftosis). Hopefully the WHO program aimed at the elimination of lymphatic filariasis as a public health problem will provide up-to-date data on the distribution and endemicity of filariasis in Central Africa. Achievement of this objective will depend not only on carrying out new field studies but also on taking into account past studies published in languages other than Shakespeare's.