Dar es Salaam has an extensive drain network, mostly with inadequate water flow, blocked by waste, causing flooding after rainfall. The presence of Anopheles and Culex larvae is common, which is likely to impact the transmission of lymphatic filariasis and malaria by the resulting adult mosquito populations. However, the importance of drains as larval habitats remains unknown.
Madhya Pradesh plans to launch a mass anti-filaria drug administration programme to curb a disease spread by culex mosquito bite which causes permanent swelling of a patient's hands and feet.
The neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), which affect the very poor, pose a major public health problem in the South-East Asia Region of the World Health Organization (WHO). Although more than a dozen NTDs affect the region, over the past five years four of them in particular
Eradication move: Deputy Director (Health Services) S. Uma, right, distributing DEP tablets at Alwarthirunagari in Tuticorin district on Sunday.
Tuticorin: In a bid to combat the transmission of lymphatic filariasis, staffers from the Department of Public Health and Preventive Medicine have undertaken a massive drug administration drive at Alwarthirunagari in the district.
TIRUCHI: An estimated 21.67 lakh people in Tiruchi district were targeted for coverage under a mass drug administration programme on February 28 as part of the lymphatic filariasis control measure.
The Institute of Applied Dermatology (IAD) at Kasargod in Kerala claims to be the first in the country to have found an integrated treatment for filariasis or elephantiasis. After a decade of research, IAD has now come out with a cost effective therapy which has helped hundreds of patients.
Filariasis is a disease transmitted through mosquito bites resulting in longstanding swelling of the limbs, especially legs, and hydrocele.
The adult worms are located in the lymph vessels, which are damaged by the parasite. Lymph vessel damage is the cause of future development of disease.
Millions of microfilaria produced by the adult female worms spread the infection.
As part of the exercise to completely eliminate filarial from the State, the Directorate of Health services will undertake the Mass Drug Administration in South Goa district from November 11.
THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: As part of National Filaria Day, which falls on November 11, a Lymphatic Filarisis Elimination programme with mass drug administration of DEC and albendazole tablets among the entire population of 11 districts viz, Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Thrissur, Palakkad, Malappuram, Kozhikode, Kannur and Kasargod will be conducted.
Drug administrators from the Directorate of Health Services with the support of various NGOs and voluntary organisations will fan out door-to-door across Goa to administer filaria tablets in an effort to meet the target of wiping out the disease completely by 2010 from the face of the State.
