Filariasis not all gone

Don’t miss your Filariasis pill on September 3,4

“A special single dose Mass Drug Administration programme to control Filariasis would be held in eleven MOH areas in the Galle district on September 3 and 4,” Health Ministry’s Anti- Filariasis Campaign’s Director Devika Mendis said yesterday. Despite the standard clarification that Filariasis had been completely eradicated from Sri Lanka, these eleven Medical Officer of Health (MOH) areas of the District had been identified as Filariasis vulnerable areas, Dr. Mendis said.

Speaking to the Daily Mirror Dr. Mendis said eleven out of twenty MOH areas in the Galle District including Galle, Balapitiya, Ambalangoda, Hikkaduwa, Rathgama, Induruwa, Gonapinuwala, Habaraduwa, Imaduwa, Akmeemana and Poddala had been identified as Filariasis vulnerable areas in 2016, with the identification of 87 Filariasis patients.“sixty patients were identified as residents of the Balapitiya MOH area after a special survey conducted to determine the presence of microfilaria. The main reason behind the spread of Filariasis in the Galle Di s t r i c t is the coast line, which provides the necessary temperature for the breeding of Lymphatic Filariasis,” Dr. Mendis added. Dr. Mendis said it was proved that the residents of fourteen MOH areas in the Galle District had not taken the medicine properly, which was prescribed for them in 2014 and 2015 to minimise the spread of the disease.