Zim leads Africa in Mass Drug Administration

Thandeka Moyo, Health Reporter
ZIMBABWE will assess the impact of the Mass Drug Administration (MDA) programme after it was chosen as one of the best countries in implementing the programme in Africa.

This year, the country rolled out the mass drug administration programme targeting four neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) which include bilharzia, elephantiasis, soil transmitted helminthiasis.

MDA review committee chairperson Professor Nicholas Midzi commended all the provinces for the hard work they did to surpass the World Health Organisations (WHO) standards.

“We have since been chosen by WHO to conduct an assessment of the programme as we are one of the best four countries that implemented the programme. For deworming schistosomiasis (bilharzia) we have been having a good trend for the country and this is inspiring our auditors. We are supposed to do it for five years to reach 75 percent coverage but we have managed to reach that goal every year,” he said.

“We started very well with Lymphatic filariasis (elephantiasis) our coverage was high last year but this year it’s low and that is a bit discouraging maybe we can lengthen the period. There is a need to include in our IEC material a message that LF is meant to be taken for five years and the disease will be cleared totally.”

The Deputy Director Epidemiology and Disease Control and Communicable Diseases in the Ministry of Health and Child Care Dr Isaac Phiri acknowledged City of Bulawayo and City of Harare for extending their coverage as it was low in the previous years.

“We are happy with coverage this year, it was through your hard work especially for Schistosomiasis but with Lymphatic filariasis we’re still far away to cover our targeted population,” he said.

Of the world’s poorest 2.7 billion people in Africa, Asia and Latin America (defined as those who live on less than US$ 2.00 a day), more than 1 billion are affected by one or more neglected tropical disease.

Neglected tropical diseases are a group of diseases that are considered not to have received sufficient attention from the donor community and public health planners.

@thamamoe