Community-based lymphatic filariasis education increases treatment compliance
Jun 29, 2010 - 6:11:00 PM
, Reviewed by: Dr. Sanjukta Acharya
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By PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases,
[RxPG] Community-based lymphatic filariasis education in Orissa State, India, increased treatment compliance from around 50% to up to 90%, according to a study published June 29 in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. In their study, researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in partnership with the Church’s Auxiliary for Social Action, an India-based non-governmental organization, and IMA World Health, a US-based non-governmental organization, identified barriers to compliance with India's MDA program for LF, and suggest that timely educational and lymphedema management programs can reverse this trend.
Nearly 1.3 billion people worldwide live at risk of infection with the parasite that causes lymphatic filariasis. Infected individuals may develop long-term complications, such as grossly swollen limbs from lymphedema. Elimination of this disease of poverty requires giving drugs at least once per year to people who are at risk; of that population, 80% or more need to continue receiving medication on an annual basis for 5 or more years to stop transmission.
The authors evaluated a community-based education campaign, noted deficiencies, and designed interventions to correct them. An evaluation of the revised education program, covering over 8,000 people in ninety villages, showed markedly improved drug compliance and, for the first time, showed that lymphedema management programs, which teach leg care to patients with swollen legs, may also increase compliance with lymphatic filariasis mass drug administration programs. The increase was greatest in areas that had implemented U.S. Agency for International Development-supported programs to teach people how to care for legs swollen from infection.
This evaluation was confined to rural areas in Orissa State, so the findings do not necessarily apply to urban areas or areas outside the state. Nonetheless, lymphatic filariasis elimination programs facing difficulties in achieving the necessary level of drug compliance should consider evaluating their education campaigns using similar methods and integrating lymphedema management with lymphatic filariasis elimination efforts, the authors say.
| Funding information and declaration of competing interests:
Funding for this work was provided by USAID (GHA-G-00-03-0005-00) to IMA World Health and by CDC (IAA GHH99-006). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manucript.
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About Dr. Sanjukta Acharya
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This news story has been reviewed by Dr. Sanjukta Acharya before its publication on RxPG News website. Dr. Sanjukta Acharya, MBBS MRCP is the chief editor for RxPG News website. She oversees all the medical news submissions and manages the medicine section of the website. She has a special interest in nephrology. She can be reached for corrections and feedback at [email protected]
RxPG News is committed to promotion and implementation of Evidence Based Medical Journalism in all channels of mass media including internet.
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Additional information about the news article
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CITATION: Cantey PT, Rout J, Rao G, Williamson J, Fox LM (2010) Increasing Compliance with Mass Drug Administration Programs for Lymphatic Filariasis in India through Education and Lymphedema Management Programs. PLoS Negl Trop Dis 4(6): e728. doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.About PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases (http://www.plosntds.org/) is a peer-reviewed, open-access journal devoted to the pathology, epidemiology, prevention, treatment, and control of the neglected tropical diseases, as well as public policy relevant to this group of diseases. All works published in PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases are open access, which means that everything is immediately and freely available subject only to the condition that the original authorship and source are properly attributed. The Public Library of Science uses the Creative Commons Attribution License, and copyright is retained by the authors.
About the Public Library of Science
The Public Library of Science (PLoS) is a non-profit organization of scientists and physicians committed to making the world's scientific and medical literature a freely available public resource.
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