Roxas City’s anti-filariasis campaign ends in January
ROXAS CITY – The City Health Officer (CHO) here will continue with its massive treatment on filariasis until January 2010 to widely cover the targeted population for the campaign.
“We have already reached 23,000 residents in the city as of November,” said City Health Officer Dr. Amelita Robles.
The mass drug administration (MDA) for filariasis to interrupt the transmission of the disease was launched by the CHO last Nov. 17 in support to 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 city’s initial beneficiaries of the MDA included local officials as well as employees and students, among others. The MDA uses a single dose of a combination of Diethylcarbamazine Citrate (DEC) and Albendazole each year for five consecutive years.
A filariasis corner has also been set up at the CHO for walk-in patients who want to avail the anti-filariasis drugs.
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.
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/A.Lumaque)
