Coverage and compliance of mass drug administration in lymphatic filariasis amidst the COVID-19 pandemic: A community based epidemiological study

BACKGROUND: Despite the target of elimination of lymphatic filariasis by 2015, a few districts of West Bengal including Bankura district failed to achieve it. Under-coverage and unsupervised consumption of medicines during mass drug administration (MDA) campaign were implicated for the failure. Thereby, directly observed therapy (DOT) and mop up by repeated home visits for MDA were adopted. OBJECTIVE: The objective of this study is to assess the coverage of anti-filarial medicines distribution and rate of consumption as well as to find out the causes of nonconsumption. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in three sub-centers each of three blocks and three wards of Bankura municipality of Bankura district, WB, India, selected through the stratified random sampling method. Information was collected interviewing inhabitants of the house hold selected through the systematic random sampling technique. RESULTS: Overall, appropriate medicine distribution was 82.9% with 95.3% of correct consumption of both medicines under supervision. 91.87% of the respondents were aware about Lymphatic filariasis (LF) of which 89.95% reported swelling of leg/foot/hand, 9.57% as pain, 6.22% fever, and 1.44% reported swelling of testis as symptoms of LF. Altogether 10.6% individual, who consumed any medicine (527), reported AEs, out of that 66.1%, 19.6%, and 14.3% complained of dizziness/headache, nausea/vomiting, and drowsiness, respectively, and 28.6% of them sought consultation with health workers. CONCLUSION: Substantial supervised consumption in the form DOT in this round too leads to the fact that the effective coverage of MDA has reached the target. It seemed that some segment of the beneficiary is remaining as persistent noncomplaints. Mass mobilization for motivating this persistent defaulter section is the need of the hour.