Role of National Filaria Control Programme (NFCP) Units in Elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis in Uttar Pradesh, India

Abstract

All 51 lymphatic filariasis (LF) endemic districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh are being targeted for elimination of lymphatic filariasis (ELF) and accordingly, mass drug administration (MDA) had to be observed for consecutive five years by administering only Di-ethyl Carbamazine Citrate (DEC) once in a year. However, the human resource deployed in the state under NFCP is not optimally involved and utilised for the purpose. Instead, one more drug albendazole (400 mg) was added along with DEC and was administered to all age groups above 2 years of age since 2008 to have an effect on the adult worm too together with mf and therefore, the parasite was destroyed preventing the infected person from developing clinical manifestation. This had to be assessed by conducting a transmission assessment survey (TAS) thrice at an interval of two years.Out of 51 filaria endemic districts of the state, 42 districts have been subjected to TAS since 2015, of which only one district, i.e. Rampur, has cleared TAS-1, TAS-2 and TAS-3 and is under post MDA surveillance. 09 districts were subjected to TAS-1 twice, but could not clear the TAS-1 level, while 09 other districts could not qualify to proceed further for TAS-1. The state is yet to achieve the elimination of LF and has to conduct more MDA rounds beyond the scheduled five rounds required for the elimination of the disease. The various reasons for not achieving the target in programme implementation have been raised in the present paper.