Third drug added as anti-filaria campaign seeks to extend geographic coverage

Dr Karen Gordon-Boyle
Dr Karen Gordon-Boyle

As it moves to begin its third round of lymphatic filariasis Mass Drug Administration (MDA), the Ministry of Public Health is looking for help from private citizens and the private sector so that it can better reach the rural and hinterland regions of Guyana.

Deputy Chief Medical Officer (DCMO) Karen Gordon-Boyle told reporters at a press conference yesterday that if Guyana is to achieve its goal of being a non-endemic country for filariasis, it needs to move beyond fighting the disease only in the more urban areas of regions Three, Four, Five and Ten.

She noted that while the current method has resulted in 86 per cent coverage in the four regions targeted, it would take another three years to cover the entire country using this strategy. As a result, the MDA, which previously utilised only Albendazole and Diethylcarbamazine citrate (DEC), is now being augmented to a triple drug therapy.

The treatment, also known as IDA, adds Ivermectin to the combination of DEC and Albendazole since according to the World Health Organization (WHO), it clears microfilaria more efficiently from the blood.

First recommended in November 2017, the triple drug therapy is said to save both time and money and is expected to help Guyana join Costa Rica, Suriname and Trinidad and Tobago on the region’s list of non-endemic countries by 2020.

Gordon-Boyle stressed that with the challenges the programme is likely to face in the hinterland, the ministry is looking for help from volunteers and the private sector.

“We will require multi-sector support…Ministry of Health does not have the resources to do it alone. We are going to need support. I’m challenging the private sector to come on board in any way they can whether it is transportation, mobilising populations especially in the hinterland. We are going (to) need, to have that sort of support and I’m personally putting it out there because I recognise the challenges we might have in the hinterland. I’m putting up a prize for (the) hinterland community which mobilises the most people to get their medication and I’m challenging the private sector to do likewise,” Gordon-Boyle said.

She explained that the ministry has already spent more than $60 million to facilitate pill distribution as part of the last two rounds of the MDA which was conducted in four regions.

PAHO/WHO, meanwhile, has invested more than US$600,000 in the programme, including supplying all medication.

Country representative Dr William Adu-Krow explained that he sees the investment as worth it. “It is an ongoing battle. If we do not continue to have high intake, we will lose. The war is not won yet,” he stressed. 

The third round of lymphatic filariasis MDA begins in October.