JOURNAL OF CLINICAL AND BIOMEDICAL SCIENCES

Abstract

Background: Sustained implementation of mass drug administration (MDA) of antifilarial drugs in a cam-paign mode for five years could lead to lymphatic filariasis elimination. Evaluation of each campaign in rela-tion to MDA coverage, drug compliance, communication, management and community participation gives inputs to the iterative programme planning. Aim: To find the coverage rates, drug compliance and planning and implementation of MDA campaign. Material and methods: A multi-stage cross-sectional survey of vil-lages and urban wards of Raichur district in Karnataka was conducted in March 2013. A structured inter-view was conducted on a sample of 250 eligible beneficiaries in each cluster including from two to sixty years of age and excluding pregnant women and severely ill. The coverage and compliance rates are ex-pressed with 95% confidence interval. The difference of these rates among the urban and rural clusters is analyzed by chi-square test and p value of <0.05 is considered statistically significant. Results: Drug distri-bution rate of 95.7% and compliance rate of 93.4% in rural Raichur is significantly better than the corre-sponding rates of 83% and 83.7% respectively in urban areas. MDA campaign was not scheduled as per plan due to delay in supply of drugs from central and state level to district level and an unscheduled protest by doctors. Conclusion: A significant improvement in performance of MDA campaign at Raichur could be at-tributed to committed frontline health workers and strategic coverage implementation in spite of manageri-al deficiencies at higher levels.

Keywords: Raichur, MDA campaign, Lymphatic Filariasis, Evaluation, Compliance, Drug distribution.