The state health department is organising a mass drug administration of Diethylcarbamazine (DEC) tablets to be administered to the entire susceptible population except pregnant women,children below two years and seriously sick persons.
Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) is a major public health problem,second only to malaria. As per recent estimates, about 428 million people with 28 million Microfilariae (mf) carriers and 21 million clinical cases were spread in 13 states and five Union Territories.
As it is,India contributes about 74% of endemic population and 81% of the disease burden in the Region.W.bancroftiis the most predominant infection comprising 99.4% of the problem in the country whileB.malayi is confined to the western coast of Kerala and a few pockets in six other states including Jharkhand.
The first pilot project in India for the control of LF was undertaken in Orissa from 1949-54 and in the subsequent year the National Filaria Control Programme was launched to delimit the problem, undertake large scale control operations and train the professionals and ancillary staff to run the programme.
Currently, the programme in Jharkhand is confined to urban areas only, covering less than 10 % of the endemic population.
