Jamindan town supports filariasis eradication campaign
by A. Lumaque
Roxas City (18 November) -- A ceremonial taking in of anti-filariasis drugs by the municipal officials and employees of Jamindan, Capiz last Nov. 17 highlighted the town's launching of mass drug administration (MDA) for filariasis to interrupt the transmission of the disease.
The initial beneficiaries of the MDA also included local health authorities, selected students of Jamindan National High School (JNHS) and representatives of national government agencies who attended the launching activity.
Filariasis is a disease caused by worms transmitted to humans through bites of infected female mosquitoes. It may manifest as recurrent fever, enlarged lymph nodes, and urine with color similar to rice washing.
A primer on filariasis noted that the disease can lead to enlargement of the thigh, leg, breast or scrotum if it remains untreated.
"We will also go to the barangays to cover the municipality's two years and older population," said Municipal Health Officer Dr. Merriel Kapunan.
She has also assured that the Rural Health Unit (RHU) has medicines in case there are adverse reactions for those who took the drugs against the parasitic disease.
The MDA uses a single dose of a combination of Diethylcarbamazine Citrate (DEC) and Albendazole each year for five consecutive years.
For her part, Jamindan Mayor Ethel R. Jinon encouraged her constituents to take the filariasis mass treatment drugs to achieve high mass treatment coverage.
Nineteen hydroceles were registered in Jamindan during a provincewide deformity survey in November 2008 following a documented 41 positive cases for filariasis in Tapaz town.
The municipal initiative to eradicate the disease is in line with the Provincial Health Office's efforts to make Capiz filariasis-free in the succeeding years. It also supported President Gloria Macapagal – Arroyo's Executive Order No. 369 which declared the month of November as mass treatment period for filariasis in established endemic areas.
The province was declared by the Department of Health (DOH) as the 41st endemic province in the country of lymphatic filariasis early this year.
The International Task Force for Disease Eradication declared that filariasis is one of the six eradicable diseases with the recent advances in the field of diagnosis and treatment. (PIA) [top]
