Less than one week into the last leg of the filaria campaign, more than 39,000 persons have already taken their pills– a good start in the quest to eliminate the disease.
Public Works Minister Juan Edghill taking his filaria pills
This was announced by Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony on Thursday, who commended the response received thus far. This figure is only for Regions Three (Essequibo Islands-West Demerara) and Four (Demerara-Mahaica), where the mass drug administration programme is currently ongoing.
Local Government Minister Nigel Dharamlall ingesting the filaria pills
Once the campaign proves successful, Guyana would have succeeded in eliminating filaria through certification from the World Health Organisation (WHO).
“Our expectation is that we are going to be spending 14 days in these two regions. So far, the response has been really good. We were able as of yesterday afternoon (Wednesday) to reach at least 39,000 persons and that’s a relatively good percentage in just a short time. Our teams continue to work and we would like to urge the population to give them the cooperation,” the Minister said.
He added that the teams were circulating in various communities and would be able to address any questions from the public. Persons are asked to take the pills, as the campaign later moves to other regions.
Health Minister, Dr Frank Anthony leading by example in the filaria campaign
“This is a team effort. We are providing the medication and we want people to take the medication, because we want them to be protected. When you see the team around, talk to them, get educated, and take the medication so that we can eliminate filaria from Guyana,” Dr Anthony stressed.
The WHO data shows that some 900 million people in 49 different countries are at risk of contracting filaria. As such, the Health Minister said this campaign was a national effort to completely eliminate filaria, as he called for political unity in realising this objective.
“More than 90 per cent of our population is at risk of this disease…Once we complete this exercise, then henceforth, nobody in Guyana should ever have to deal with filaria again. If we are able to accomplish this as a people, then that is going to be a wonderful achievement for all of us…This exercise is one where all of us would have to come together as one people to fight this disease, and I am extremely happy that we can have political unity, so that we can demonstrate to our public that there is no politics involved here,” he was quoted as saying during the launching last week.
For the campaign, training has been completed for 1400 pill distributors, 170 field officers, 20 regional coordinators, and eight national supervisors spanning 138 health facilities across the country. For those persons who have already contracted filaria, he said they were working on treatment to prevent them from developing a disability.
It is recommended by the WHO that mass administration of medicines will be rolled out in countries seeking to eliminate filariasis completely. Guyana would have completed the first round of pills distribution and now the last round will be administered to citizens. The campaign should be completed by May.
Guyanese are given three tablets: Ivermectin, Diethylcarbamazine (DEC) and Albendazole. The combination of pills is called the IDA. The number of tablets administered varies by age, and they are not to be given to pregnant women and children below the age of two years old.
According to information from the WHO, the disease is caused by three species of thread-like nematode worms, known as filariae – Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi and Brugia timori. Male worms range from three to four centimetres in length, and female worms eight to10 centimetres.
