UP to launch triple drug therapy to counter filariasis

Kanpur (UP), Aug 8 The Uttar Pradesh government will launch a Triple Drug Therapy (TDA) from August 10 to August 28 to prevent and counter filariasis.Filariasis is the second largest cause of long-term disability in the world. Avoiding mosquitoes and taking medicine is the only way to avoid it.

To make this campaign successful, it is necessary that every eligible beneficiary must take the medicine.

Chief medical officer (CMO) Dr Alok Ranjan has specifically appealed to the patients to take medicine only in front of the ASHA workers.

Nodal officer of vector borne disease control programme RP Mishra said that at present there are 3,551 filariasis patients in the district. Out of them, 660 suffer from hydrocele while the remaining 2,891 are lymphoedema patients.

He said 555 people suffering from hydrocele have been operated successfully and the rest are to be operated. Mishra said that in TDA 2023, about 46.31 lakh population of the district will be given anti-filarial medicine by the teams at booths and door-to-door.

The medicine should not be administered to children below two years of age, pregnant women and very seriously ill persons.

To achieve the 100 per cent target, 616 supervisors will be touring in the area, he said.

Nityanand Thakur, zonal coordinator, WHO said the disease is also known as Elephant's foot and its complete cure is not possible and can be controlled by cleaning and exercising the part affected by the disease. In such a situation, if antimalarial drugs are used continuously once in a year for three years during the TDA campaign, this serious disease can be avoided.

District malaria officer A.K. Singh said that anti-filarial drugs are completely safe. Although they do not have any adverse effect, yet if someone has symptoms like vomiting, dizziness, itching or nausea after taking the medicine, it is a sign that the parasite of filariasis is present in that person's body.

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