BANDUNG RESIDENTS TO TAKE DRUGS AGAINST LYMPHATIC FILARIASIS

Soreang, Nov. 9 (ANTARA) - Some 2.7 million residents of Bandung District will take anti-filarial drugs on Tuesday in a lymphatic filariasis elimination program.

The lymphatic filariasis elimination program would be launched by Bandung District Obar Sobarna at Cicalengka Regional Public Hospital, on Tuesday noon, Asep Syahdiana, a spokesman of the Bandung district administration, said here on Monday.

The program would target 2,782.773 people, including 243,167 children aged between 2 and 5 years old, 567,707 aged between 6-14 years old, 1,874,528 aged between 15-65 years old, and 101,371 over 65 years old.

The Bandung district health service has received from the health ministry, 11 million tablets consisting of 2.8 million tablets of Paracetamol, 2.7 million of Albendazole, and 7.4 million tablets of Dietyl C Karbamazine.

Activities of the lymphatic filariasis elimination program will be conducted at 11,685 integrated health posts and supported with a budget funds amounting to Rp2 billion.

Lymphatic filariasis is infection with the filarial worms, Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi or B. timori. These parasites are transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected mosquito and develop into adult worms in the lymphatic vessels, causing severe damage and swelling (lymphoedema). Elephantiasis - painful, disfiguring swelling of the legs and genital organs - is a classic sign of late-stage disease.

The infection can be treated with drugs. However, chronic conditions may not be curable by anti-filarial drugs and require other measures, such as surgery for hydrocele, care of the skin and exercise to increase lymphatic drainage in lymphoedema.

Lymphatic Filariasis, known as Elephantiasis, puts at risk more than a billion people in more than 80 countries.

Over 120 million have already been affected by it, over 40 million of them are seriously incapacitated and disfigured by the disease.

One-third of the people infected with the disease live in India, one third are in Africa and most of the remainder are in South Asia, the Pacific and the Americas.