FILARIASIS-FREE

Davao City receives P1 million cash grant from Department of Health (DOH) 11

Davao City was declared as filariasis-free city this year.

The city government of Davao received a cash grant of P1 million from the Department of Health (DOH 11) for achieving a filariasis-free status.

During the weekly flag ceremony at the City Hall yesterday, February 11, DOH 11 director Doctor Anabelle Yumang said the cash grant will be used for the programs that would main- tain the status of the city.

“It has been a long process prior to achieving a filariasis-free status. Way back 2007, the administration for preventive medication for this disease has started and it was conducted in nine endemic districts,” Yumang said, adding that the process may be long and difficult but still possible.

She mentioned that the endemic districts before were Paquibato, Bunawan, Buhangin, Sasa, Toril, Tugbok, Calinan, and Marilog.

“This entailed a lot of changes in Davao City. Let us not forget the difficulty in educating and convincing people to take mass drug administration medication which could take up to six medications depending on their age,” Yumang said.

By 2020, Yumang explained, there will be another transmission assessment survey which is targeted to have lower the three cases recorded in 2018.

“We have very low cases of filariases, sometimes we have three, sometimes zero),” Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio said, adding that in the DOH standard, that is already a filariasis-free city. Filariasis is a parasitic disease caused by an infection with roundworms of the Filarioidea type. These are spread by blood-feeding diptera as black flies and mosquitoes.

“These parasites enter into our blood streams and multiply in human bodies and cause enlargement of extremities,” Yumang explained.