By R. G. Antonet Go/PNA
ZAMBOANGA CITY — The Department of Health-Region 9 (DOH-9) is set to conduct oral mass drug administration this month to prevent the spread of cases of filariasis in this city.
Dr. Mary Rose Bugtai, DOH-9 regional infectious disease cluster head, said Monday they have recorded 14 cases of filariasis in two far-flung barangays here.
Bugtai said that six persons are from Barangay Vitali and the remaining eight in Barangay Labuan.
Bugtai said they are targeting to give oral prophylaxis for filariasis to some 1,140,000 residents in this city’s 98 barangays. Each will be given diethylcarbamazine, a 50-milligram tablet.
She said those who will be given the medicine are two years old and above in full stomach except for pregnant women, those with renal disease and have suffered cardiac arrest as well as seriously ill.
Bugtai said they will initiate an information campaign first to inform the people about the medicine before the conduct of oral mass drug administration.
She said they already have a stock of 3,840,000 diethylcarbamazine tablets at the regional office.
Filariasis is a parasitic disease caused by an infection with roundworms of the Filarioidea type and spread by blood-feeding Diptera as black flies and mosquitoes.
The disease does not spread from direct person-to-person contact. Instead, it is transmitted by the bite of a mosquito. When one of these insects’ bite someone who is infected, it takes in the parasites along with its meal of blood.
