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The Mectizan Expert Committee is an independent body of seven internationally recogized experts in the fields of public health, tropical disease, and ophthalmology established by Merck & Co., Inc. to provide technical oversight of the Mectizan Donation Program. Mectizan Expert Committee Members are appointed for two to three year terms and meet at least once annually. The Committee:

• Provides in-country advocacy for the Mectizan Donation Program
• Reviews new applications for Mectizan
• Reviews processes for drug delivery and monitoring
• Develops policies on the administration and appropriate use of the drug
• Discusses and develops policies on other issues as needed
• Helps build relationships and alliances with Mectizan Donation Program partners

On issues related to lymphatic filariasis, the Committee expands to inlcude two Advisors with specific expertise in that field. At committee meetings, liaisons are routinely invited from partner organizations, Merck & Co., Inc., GlaxoSmithKline US, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the World Bank, and technical advisory bodies to WHO.

Current Members

Dr. Gilbert Burnham, Chair of the Mectizan Expert Committee

Dr. Burnham is currently a Professor in the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in the department of international health. He has extensive field experience in onchocerciasis control and has worked on a number of WHO onchocerciasis-related working groups including the WHO Ivermectin Subcommittee and Scientific Working Group on Filariasis and the WHO
Onchocerciasis Operational Research Task Force. He also provided assistance to the WHO Special Program for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases analyzing the impact of ivermectin on onchocercal skin disease. Dr. Burnham worked in Malawi to establish a Mectizan distribution program and eye care project and he conducted an evaluation of the Malawi onchocerciasis control program for the
International Eye Foundation. He also worked in Uganda on an onchocerciasis control consultation for Deutsche Gesellschaft Technische Zusammenarbeit. Dr. Burnham has published a number of articles on onchocerciasis and other tropical diseases, including an editorial commentary in the Lancet on the use of ivermectin in loiasis endemic areas, a topic frequently discussed during MEC/AC meetings.

Dr. Daniel Boakye, Associate Professor of Entomology & Parasitology at the Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research at the University of Ghana

Daniel Boakye, PhD, is also a member of Ghana’s National Task Force on Lymphatic Filariasis in addition to his teaching position at the University of Ghana. Dr. Boakye received his PhD in medical entomology from the University of Leiden in the Netherlands and his masters in applied entomology and parasitology from the University of Jos in Nigeria. He brings experience with both onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis to the Mectizan® Expert Committee.

Dr. Michel Boussinesq, Directeur de Recherche, Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement, Paris, France

Michel Boussinesq, MD, PhD, has worked for more than 15 years on the epidemiology of onchocerciasis and on the strategies to control the disease by ivermectin chemotherapy. Most of his research has been conducted in Cameroon, where he was seconded at the Centre Pasteur. The main objectives of his activities are aimed at evaluating the effects of various regimens of ivermectin on Onchocerca volvulus, and at addressing the issue of the adverse events related to coinfection with the filarial parasite Loa loa. He has also participated, in collaboration with various partners, in research on the modelling of population dynamics of onchocerciasis and loiasis, and on the immunology of onchocerciasis and other nematodiasis. Dr. Boussinesq is a member of the Technical Consultative Committee of the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC) and coordinates two teams involved in the long-term impact assessment of APOC operations. At the french Institut de Recherche pour le Developpement (IRD), he leads the team "Infectious Diseases" of the Research Unit "Epidemiology and Prevention". Dr. Boussinesq has published more than 70 scientific articles on onchocerciasis and other helminthic diseases.

Dr. Eka Braide, TBA

Dr. Eddie W. Cupp, Professor, Dept. of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama USA.

Professor Cupp has a wealth of experience in entomology and parasitic diseases. He has been a professor of entomology for the past 17 years, and, since 1993, Dr. Cupp has been a member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Expert Advisory Panel on Parasitic Diseases and the WHO Expert Committee on Onchocerciasis Control. He has expertise in onchocerciasis control in the Americas through his work there, which includes the emergence of new foci of onchocerciasis in the Americas, the effects of long-term community-level treatment with Mectizan on Onchocerca volvulus in Latin America, and programmatic strategy toward the elimination of onchocerciasis from the Americas. 
 
Dr. Dominique Kyelem, Programme Manager, Burkina Faso Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Program

Dr. Kyelem is a physician from Burkina Faso. He completed his medical degree of “Diplôme d’Etat de Docteur en médecine” in Burkina Faso and his master in public health in community health and health management in developing countries from the University of Heidelberg, Germany. He is also pursuing his PhD part-time at the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom. He is currently employed by the Ministry of Health as both the programme manager of Burkina Faso’s lymphatic filariasis elimination programme and the head of the unit in charge of communicable diseases within the Division
of Disease Control.

Dr. Grace Saguti, National Coordinator of Tanzania’s National Eye Care Program and National Onchocerciasis Control Program

Dr. Saguti works in Tanzania's Ministry Of Health and Social Welfare. She received her master of medicine degree in ophthalmology and her doctor of medicine degree from the University of Dar es Salaam. Dr. Saguti is a member of the International Council for Ophthalmology and co-chair for the International Agency for Prevention of Blindness, Eastern Africa Region. She is also the secretary for the Opthalmological Society of East Africa (OSEA) and the chairperson for OSEA’s Tanzania chapter.

LF Advisors

Dr. Amy Klion, Staff Physician, US National Institutes of Health, Bethesda, Maryland, USA

Amy Klion, M.D. has a broad range of experience in parasitic diseases having worked in research areas such as host immune responses to filarial infection and diagnostic approaches in parasitic disease. Dr. Klion began participating in Mectizan Expert Committee/Albendazole Coordination meetings in 1999 as Special Advisor on Lymphatic Filariasis. In addition to her expertise on LF, she also has research experience with Loa loa and onchocerciasis.  In 2001, Dr. Klion also contributed her expertise to the Scientific Working Group on Serious Adverse Events in Loa-endemic Areas held in Liverpool, UK.

Dr. Charles Mackenzie, Michigan State University, Dimondale, Michigan, USA

Charles Mackenzie, BVSc, PhD, joined the Mectizan Expert Committee/Albendazole Coordination as Special Advisor on Lymphatic Filariasis in 1999 following his post with the Mectizan Donation Program as ad interim Director for the Lymphatic Filariasis Program. Dr. Mackenzie has extensive experience in the field with both onchocerciasis and lymphatic filariasis. He traveled to Sudan on numerous occasions to ensure that Mectizan is being effectively distributed there in spite of the civil conflict and other constraints there. Dr. Mackenzie is a professor of veterinary pathology at Michigan State University (MSU) which is a Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (GAELF) partner. MSU's GAELF role also includes fellowship opportunities for students in endemic countries to study at MSU. Dr. Mackenzie directs the LF activities at MSU, and travels extensively to endemic countries to help them develop the capacity to distribute Mectizan and albendazole for LF in Africa, and albendazole and diethylcarbamazine in all other endemic countries.

Liaison Members

(TBA) CDC Liaision
Medical Epidemiologist, Division of Parasitic Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Preventionl, Atlanta, Georgia, USA

Dr. Mark Bradley, GlaxoSmithKline Liaison
Science Coordinator, GlaxoSmithKline, UK

Dr. Adenike Abiose, Technical Consultative Committee (TCC) Liaison
TCC Chair

Dr.  C.P. Ramachandran, Technical Advisory Group (TAG) Liaison
TAG Chair for the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis

Dr. J. Hans Remme, WHO Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (TDR) Liaison
Manager, Task Force for Filariasis Intervention Research, Geneva, Switzerland

Dr. Jean Baptiste Roungou, WHO/AFRO Liaison
WHO Regional Office for Africa, Division of Disease Control and Prevention, Harare, Zimbabwe

Dr. Alfred Saah, Merck Liaison
Associate Director, Infectious Diseases – Clinical Research, Merck & Co., Inc., West Point, Pennsylvania, USA

Dr. Mauricio Sauerbrey, Onchocerciasis Elimination Program for the Americas (OEPA) Liaision
Director, OEPA, Guatemala City, Guatemala

Dr. Uche Amazigo, African Program for Onchocerciasis Control (APOC)
Director, APOC, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso 

Dr. Lorenzo Savioli, WHO HQ Liaison
Director, Department of Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases