Ranchi: For complete eradication of lymphatic filaria in Jharkhand, the State Health Department is to start another round of the administration of mass drugs (MDA) in 12 of the 17 Filaria endemic districts from Monday.
MDA will be held for six days with a combination of two anti-filarial drugs, Albandozole and Des, in 11 Corruption Eradications, Chatra, Dumka, East Singhbhum, Garhwa, Godda, Hazaribag, Khunti, Lohardaga, Ranchi and Singhbhum Timur.
The Keduellas District, Simdega, was chosen for the pilot project to experiment with three drug therapy with Vivermectin as the third tablet.
In all countries, 256 districts in 16 states and five union regions are considered Filaria and Indian endemic zones as the signing of the World Health Association has decided to take steps for Filaria’s complete eradication in 2020.
Although the MDA campaign had a negative impact last year.
Because of Covid’s pandemic, the health authority has decided to advance the mission through several MDA rounds.
The National Health Mission Director, Dr.
Uma Shankar Singh, said that no government campaign in the health sector will succeed without community participation.
He said, “Therefore we, begging people to advance and take free drugs from health representatives, who will be in the door-to-door campaign during MDA.” State program officers from the disease transmitted by vectors, Dr.
S N Jha said drugs would be distributed from outlets and also delivered on the doorstep by health workers.
“Anyone above the age of one year, not suffering from a critical illness, or a woman who is not pregnant meets the requirements to take oral drugs provided,” he said, emphasizing that children in the 1-2 year age group will be given with only one PIL – Albendazole.
Jha also asked people to realize that anti-filarial drugs sometimes cause little bad effects such as fever, headaches and vomiting.
“But such effects are only noticed when parasites are present in the body of people who take medication.
Instead of panic, they must understand that vomiting or fever is an indication that the person is safe from the parasite,” he said.
The state approval of whom for neglected tropical disease (NTD), Abhishek Paul, said Filaria was caused by parasites and transmitted through mosquitoes.
“Filaria, which often leads to abnormal swelling from limbs and other organs of the body, is one of the main causes of physical disability but with timely interventions, can be prevented and even eradicated,” he said.