Aiming towards “Hathipaon Mukt Bharat” (Lymphatic Filarisis Free India) by 2021, the Union Health Ministry is all set to scale up the Triple Drug Therapy (TDT) from present 4 districts including Arwal(Bihar), Simdega (Jharkhand), Nagpur (Maharashtra) and Varanasi (Uttar Pradesh) to 19 more districts in next three months from November 2019. This will be followed by expanding the TDT in 116 more districts.
Also known as elephantiasis, LF is a parasitic disease caused by infection with roundworms of the family Filarioidea. As per the WHO, around one billion people (a whopping 20% of the world’s population) in over 54 countries are at a risk of developing the disease. India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Bangladesh contribute to 70 per cent of the infection worldwide, with India carrying more than half of the total burden.
Planning, commitment, vision, societal involvement and past experiences can help us achieve our goal of eliminating LFs from the country by 2021, said Dr. Harsh Vardhan, Union Health Minister after inaugurating the national symposium on ‘United to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis’, here on Wednesday. The symposium brought together diverse stakeholders including global and national public health experts, partners and donors, research organisations, pharmaceutical companies to deliberate on building a common vision towards achieving elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis by 2021.
The Minister also stressed on involving children in the programme to make it a mass movement.
Preeti Sudan, Union Health Secretary said that India is set to expand the use of TDT in a phased manner starting from next month - November 2019. “We are working with state governments and our partners to ensure high level of compliance to these drugs by communities living in endemic districts,” she added. She said, the new TDT will be scaled up in 16 districts across 5 States namely Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Karnataka, and Maharashtra to accelerate the pace of elimination of the disease in the country.
The need to introduce TDT was felt after it was realized that the two-drug regimen (optimally albendazole with DEC) was not really delivering the expected results because of its long treatment duration and poor compliance of the community under the Mass Drug Administration (MDA).
“ These (TDT) require only two to three rounds of administration as against the previous drug regimen that was administered for multiple rounds,” said Dr Nupur Roy Addl. Director, National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme (NVBDCP), Health Ministry.
Sri Lanka and the Maldives have successfully eliminated lymphatic filariasis through a combined approach of mass drug administration and robust disease surveillance under the Global Program for Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis (GPELF), added Suman Rijal, Director, Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi). “Learning from these countries and focusing on closing implementation gaps in our administration efforts coupled with strong political will,” we too can eliminate this tropical disease, he said.
As per the ICMR, around 31 million people in India are estimated to be infected with the disease and more than 23 million suffer from a disability associated with it. Filariasis can cause limbs, usually the leg, knee downwards, to swell enormously causing disfigurement and disability.
