Awareness of health personnel about lymphatic filariasis and mass drug administration in Karnataka state of South India

BackgroundA third of world’s filariasis cases occur in India. As a resultMass Drug Administration (MDA) was commenced in 1997with the aim of eliminating this disease by 2015. Howeverthe coverage of MDA was not satisfactory. The underlyingreasons for the poor coverage need to be identified. Thisstudy was conducted to assess the awareness of healthpersonnel of lymphatic filariasis and the MDA programme.MethodThis cross-sectional study was conducted in Kundapurataluk of Karnataka state in India during the 6th round of theMDA which was held between December 11 to 13, 2009.78 health personnel who were posted for drug distributionwere selected by convenience sampling. After obtaininginformed consent health personnel were interviewedindividually using a semi-structured questionnaire.Performance of health personnel was assessed according topoints scored for their responses.ResultsThe mean age of all participants were 22.7± 8.9 years,74(94.1%) were females and 58(74.4%) were nursingstudents. Only 17 (21.8%) participants had prior experiencebefore taking part in this round of MDA. Only 4 (5.1%)participants achieved good scores while 45 (57.7%) gotaverage scores. Performance scores were significantlybetter among paramedical workers (P<0.025) andparticipants with at least 4 years of experience in MDA(P<0.004).10 (12.8%) participants held the misconception that MDAshould not be given to patients with DM (diabetes mellitus)and 7 (9.0%) felt that it should not be given to patients withhypertension or elderly people. This was seen significantlymore (P<0.001) among non medical workers compared toothers.ConclusionVery few participants in this study attained goodperformance scores regarding their knowledge of lymphaticfilariasis and the MDA programme. Performance scoreswere better among paramedical workers compared toothers. However misconceptions about contraindications toMDA were seen in all participants and this must beaddressed by future training.