Campaign launched against filariasis

As a part of the international movement to eliminate lymphatic filariasis, Mass Drug Administration campaign was taken up on Sunday.

Launching the MDA campaign at Government Elementary School, Gandhinagar at Arilova here on Sunday, District Collector N. Yuvaraj took a dose of DEC and Albendazole tablets before distributing them among students and residents. The government has supplied DEC and Albendazole tablets to the filariasis-affected population in and around Viskahapatnam.

EISAI Pharmatechnology and Manufacturing Pvt. Ltd., Visakhapatnam, as part of its philosophy of Human Health Care (

hhc ) supported the World Health Organisation global programme to eliminate lymphatic filariasis by 2020 by taking up awareness campaign to educate people to take preventive and corrective steps to control filariasis at Arilova as part of the Sunday’s MDA programme.

The staff of EISAI Pharma in association with the members of the Department of Health distributed pamphlets, posters, displayed videos and made presentations on the preventive measures.

The recommended dosage for preventing filariasis and also making it non-infectious was one tablet of DEC for the children between two and five years, two for those between 6-14 and it is three tablets for those above 14 years, District Medical and Health Officer Saroja said and cautioned against taking the tablets on empty stomach. Albendazole tablets were also distributed to eliminate the worm.

Additional Joint Collector D.V. Reddy, Regional Director Somaraju, District Malaria Officer Prasad, additional DMHO Ramesh, senior executives of Eisai, including, Girish Dixit, A.K. Sekhar, Lokesh Sharma and Somnath, participated in the programme and distributed the tablets to the patients and interacted with their family members.