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[av_heading heading=’DOH confident of eradicating filariasis in Western Visayas ‘ tag=’h3′ style=’blockquote modern-quote’ size=’30’ subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” admin_preview_bg=”]
BY CAROLYN JANE ABELLO
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ILOILO – The Department of Health (DOH) is hopeful of eradicating lymphatic filariasis in Western Visayas.
The World Health Organization (WHO) describes lymphatic filariasis, also known as elephantiasis, as a painful and disfiguring disease causing temporary or permanent disability.
It is caused by three species of thread-like nematode worms known as filariae – Wuchereria bancrofti, Brugia malayi and Brugia timori.
These worms form “nests” in the human lymphatic system, the network of nodes and vessels that maintain the delicate fluid balance between blood and body tissues.
According to DOH Region 6 medical technologist Niño Chad Genona, the provinces of Capiz and Iloilo and Iloilo City are filariasis-free.
The status of Antique and Aklan, on the other hand, needs further evaluation.
Iloilo province and city passed the WHO evaluation in 2014 while Capiz was declared filariasis-free only last year.
No cases have been detected in Negros Occidental and Guimaras.
DOH has a mass drug administration program to eradicate filariasis. The department hopes to make the whole country filariasis-free by 2018. Subjects are made to take medicines diethylcarbamazine citrate and albendazole once a year.
Results of the nocturnal blood survey in Barangay Cabatangan, Lambunao, Iloilo in 2016 and the transmission assessment survey on 3,192 grades 1 and 2 pupils of select public schools in Iloilo just this July 2017 were all negative.
The village was one of the sites where cases of lymphatic filariasis where previously recorded.
The first case of lymphatic filariasis in Iloilo was confirmed in 2006. The mass drug administration started in 2008.
In the Philippines, the elimination of lymphatic filariasis started in 2001 in 44 endemic provinces, including Iloilo, Capiz, Aklan, and Antique in Western Visayas./PN
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