Filaria Mass Drug Administration exercise begins in two weeks
− citizens urged to participate
Minister of Health, Hon. Dr. Frank Anthony is again appealing to citizens to participate in the Government’s Mass Drug Administration (MDA) programme, geared at eliminating filaria in Guyana.
During Tuesday’s COVID-19 update, Minister Anthony said the programme would be officially launched soon and teams would be dispatched to regions which have recorded a higher prevalence of the disease.
“We are scheduled to launch this programme on the 12th February. We are looking at a small, official launch at the Umana Yana on the 12th, and immediately after that around the 14th or so, we will officially kick-off the rolling out of the programme. The programme would start off in Regions Three and Four and it would go for about two weeks or so.”
Minister Anthony said adequate personnel will be on the ground to ensure everyone has an opportunity to benefit from the programme.
“We have enough people to literally go house-to-house and meet everybody and distribute the pills. We expect that this programme would go on in these two regions for about two weeks,” he added.
By March 1 to March 14, Minister Anthony said health personnel would be in Regions Six and Ten, following which they would travel to the remaining regions to execute the MDA programme.
At least 70 per cent of the population has to take the Ivermectin (IVM), Diethylcarbamazine (DEC) and Albendazole (ALB) pills collectively known as IDA, before Guyana could be certified filaria-free by the World Health Organization.
Minister Anthony reiterated his call for the public to participate in the exercise, reminding citizens that those who took the tablets two years ago, would need to take it again to complete the treatment. He said if this time elapses, then the first dose becomes ineffective and the programme would have to be redone.