Our World
in Data
Oxford Martin School logoUniversity of Oxford logoGlobal Change Data Lab logo

What you should know about this indicator

  • Lymphatic filariasis is a painful and profoundly disfiguring disease caused by a parasitic worm transmitted to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes. It causes damage to the lymphatic system, fever and pain and can lead to swelling of the limbs and genitals, which often results in permanent disability and social stigma.
  • Lymphatic filariasis is most common in tropical and subtropical regions of the world, especially in poor communities without adequate protection from mosquito bites. It is classified as a by the World Health Organization (WHO).
  • The WHO recommends for lymphatic filariasis, which means administrating safe and effective drugs to at-risk populations, regardless of whether individuals are infected or not.
  • This data shows how much of the at-risk population is receiving preventive chemotherapy for lymphatic filariasis. 100% means that every person at-risk for contracting lymphatic filariasis is receiving preventive chemotherapy, while 0% means that no one at-risk is receiving preventive chemotherapy. In rare cases, the number of people treated may exceed the number of people targeted, which can result in a coverage percentage greater than 100%.
Treatment coverage for lymphatic filariasis
Drug coverage out of estimated population who require it.
Source
World Health Organization (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data
Last updated
June 25, 2026
Next expected update
June 2027
Date range
1999–2024
Unit
%

Sources and processing

This data is based on the following sources

World Health Organization – Preventive Chemotherapy (PC) Data Portal - Lymphatic filariasis

Progress towards achieving the Roadmap targets for control and elimination of the Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Retrieved on
June 25, 2026
Retrieved from
https://www.who.int/teams/control-of-neglected-tropical-diseases/data-platforms/pct-databank/lymphatic-filariasis
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases, PCT Databank - Lymphatic filariasis, World Health Organization (2025), https://www.who.int/teams/control-of-neglected-tropical-diseases/data-platforms/pct-databank/lymphatic-filariasis, accessed 25 June 2026.

Progress towards achieving the Roadmap targets for control and elimination of the Neglected Tropical Diseases.

Retrieved on
June 25, 2026
Retrieved from
https://www.who.int/teams/control-of-neglected-tropical-diseases/data-platforms/pct-databank/lymphatic-filariasis
Citation
This is the citation of the original data obtained from the source, prior to any processing or adaptation by Our World in Data. To cite data downloaded from this page, please use the suggested citation given in Reuse This Work below.
Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases, PCT Databank - Lymphatic filariasis, World Health Organization (2025), https://www.who.int/teams/control-of-neglected-tropical-diseases/data-platforms/pct-databank/lymphatic-filariasis, accessed 25 June 2026.

How we process data at Our World in Data

All data and visualizations on Our World in Data rely on data sourced from one or several original data providers. Preparing this original data involves several processing steps. Depending on the data, this can include standardizing country names and world region definitions, converting units, calculating derived indicators such as per capita measures, as well as adding or adapting metadata such as the name or the description given to an indicator.

At the link below you can find a detailed description of the structure of our data pipeline, including links to all the code used to prepare data across Our World in Data.

Read about our data pipeline

Reuse this work

  • All data produced by third-party providers and made available by Our World in Data are subject to the license terms from the original providers. Our work would not be possible without the data providers we rely on, so we ask you to always cite them appropriately (see below). This is crucial to allow data providers to continue doing their work, enhancing, maintaining and updating valuable data.
  • All data, visualizations, and code produced by Our World in Data are completely open access under the Creative Commons BY license. You have the permission to use, distribute, and reproduce these in any medium, provided the source and authors are credited.

Citations

How to cite this page

To cite this page overall, including any descriptions, FAQs or explanations of the data authored by Our World in Data, please use the following citation:

“Data Page: Treatment coverage for lymphatic filariasis”, part of the following publication: Esteban Ortiz-Ospina and Max Roser (2016) - “Global Health”. Data adapted from World Health Organization. Retrieved from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260706-181727/grapher/lymphatic-filariasis-treatment-coverage.html [online resource] (archived on July 6, 2026).

How to cite this data

In-line citationIf you have limited space (e.g. in data visualizations), you can use this abbreviated in-line citation:

World Health Organization (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data

Full citation

World Health Organization (2025) – with minor processing by Our World in Data. “Treatment coverage for lymphatic filariasis” [dataset]. World Health Organization, “Preventive Chemotherapy (PC) Data Portal - Lymphatic filariasis” [original data]. Retrieved July 6, 2026 from https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20260706-181727/grapher/lymphatic-filariasis-treatment-coverage.html (archived on July 6, 2026).

Download

Quick download

You can download the visualization as an image or download the chart data.