— Health Minister pleads with Guyanese to help eliminate filaria
ELIMINATING filaria as a public health issue in Guyana has been an elusive feat, but Minister of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony emphasised that Guyana will have one less disease to be bothered with if all citizens take their pills through the final round of the Mass Drug Administration (MDA) campaign to eliminate filariasis.
On Friday at the Umana Yana, in Kingston, Georgetown, the 2021 round of the MDA Campaign for the elimination of Lymphatic Filaria (LF) was launched. Since the country achieved successful coverage in prior rounds of the MDA, this round of the MDA should be the last, as long as enough citizens take their pills over the next few weeks.
“Guyana is one of the four countries that remain to eliminate filaria and more than 90 per cent of our population is at risk for this disease,” Dr. Anthony highlighted, adding: “With the exception of Regions Eight and Nine, all the other regions are endemic for filaria.”
Filaria, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), affects the body’s lymphatic system, which functions to remove unwanted fluids from the body and transports ‘lymph’- a fluid which contains white blood cells that help to fight infections. It is caused by bancrofti worms and is transmitted by culex mosquitoes.
Importantly, if someone is infected with filaria, they may develop chronic conditions, resulting in swelling of the legs and scrotum. Locally, the swelling of tissues in the leg is called ‘big foot,’ while scrotal swelling is termed ‘goadie.’ There is no cure for filaria, which means that these chronic manifestations are irreversible.
In addition to these chronic conditions, persons may be unable to work and provide for themselves, thereby resulting in adverse economic implications. There are also various mental stigmas that belabours those infected.
HISTORIC ONE
“The exercise that we’re starting today (on Friday), in many ways, can be a very historic one because if we are successful… what has eluded generations of physicians and health workers in this country, this generation of health workers would be able to accomplish it,” Dr. Anthony also said.
The distribution of the pills will begin in Regions Three and Four on February 14. It is expected that this rollout will last about two weeks, during which time a number of pill distributors will be going house-to-house to distribute the medicine. Subsequently, in March, the pills will be distributed in Regions Six and 10, before the health personnel move onto the other regions. The entire distribution should be finished by April.
Through this MDA, efforts are made to have at least 65 per cent of the population consume the ‘filaria pills’- Diethylcarbamazine citrate (DEC), Albendazole (ALB) and Ivermectin (IVM) – to sterilise and kill the worms that cause filaria.
According to the Coordinator of the Lymphatic Filariasis Elimination Campaign, Dr. Reza Niles, the goal of the MDA is to reduce the density of parasites circulating in the blood of infected persons and in communities to reduce the spread.
For this MDA, the health authorities have trained 1400 pill distributors. Some 170 field officers, 20 Regional coordinators and eight national supervisors, spanning about 130 health facilities across the country.
According to Dr. Gavinash Persaud, Regional Health Officer for Region Four, in this region- only in the East Bank and East Coast of Demerara, the target population is about 146,273 including 86,000 households and 96 schools. Pills will also be distributed at 300 fixed points.
There is a very specific dosing schedule that determines how many pills persons are required to take. All persons will be measured by trained pill distributors using a ‘dosing pole’ which measures from 90cm to 160cm. This dosing schedule rigidly guides the distribution of the pills, and numerous studies done in other countries show the effectiveness of Ivermectin.
