Coverage and Compliance of Mass Drug Administration for Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis in Bijapur District, Karnataka.

ABSTRACT

Background: Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) is the world's second leading cause of long-term disability. The current estimate reveals that 120 million people in 83 countries of the world are infected with LF parasites and more than 20% of the world's population are at risk of acquiring infection. The present study was con-ducted to assess the program effectiveness of the 2-drug strategy in terms of actual coverage, compliance rates of MDA against filariasis in the district along with the reasons for non-compliance. Objectives: To eval-uate independently the MDA Programme against Filariasis with respect to its coverage and compliance among the community. To know the reasons for non-compliance. Materials and Methods: A Community based Cross-Sectional Study was conducted in Bijapur District. A total of four clusters, one urban and three rural clusters were selected randomly. All the sampled eligible population who belong to the MDA campaign area were included. The eligible population did not include pregnant and lactating women, children below two years of age and seriously ill persons. The data were collected in pretested Performa, tabulated using Microsoft Excel 2013 and analysed using OPENEpi software. Results: The demographic profile of the study sample is as follows, 67.6% of the population were in the age group of 14-60 years. Male to female ratio was equal. 66.48% of the study population were from rural area and 33.52% were from urban area. 81.63% of the population received the drugs. 79.21% of the population consumed the DEC and Albendazole tablets. 14.60% of the sample population did not consume. Major reasons for not taking tablets were fear of side effects (56.67%) and 22.50% forgotten to take the tablets. Conclusions: The effective coverage was below the target (85%). The overall coverage was better in rural areas compared with urban areas.