Karnataka government has received a Rs. 80 lakh funding from the Union Government as a drug distribution honorarium for the filaria control under National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme. The Centre has dispatched diethylcarbamazine citrate (DEC) tablets to be distributed across filaria endemic districts in the State. The amount sanctioned by the government will be utilised as operational cost for the Information, Education and Communication (IEC) programme.

The identified filaria endemic districts where DEC is distributed are Gulbarga, Bidar, Bijapur, Bagalkot, Raichur, Dakshina Kannada, Uttara Kannada and Udupi. The objective of this massive drug distribution exercise is to check the transmission of lymphatic filaria commonly known as elephantiasis from one person to another.

This is a part of the national programme aimed at eradicating the dreaded disorder, lymphatic filarial, by 2015. Every individual in the endemic population were instructed to swallow DEC tablets once on a single day every year for at least five years.

"The programme was launched in 2004 and will go on for another four to six years," stated Basavaraju, commissioner, Health and Family Welfare Services.

Pharmabiz had reported that in 2004 a similar exercise claimed three lives where children aged 6 to 10 years succumbed to DEC at the Gulbarga Government Hospital after consuming DEC distributed by the health department officials. This year several precautions are being taken said informed sources.

Officials from the directorate of health and family welfare stated that from 8,900 cases in 1999, the cases have declined to 5,781 in 2005.

The drug was administered to all except children below two years, pregnant women, aged and those with several serious disorders.

The mass drug administration was carried out on a door to door basis by over 50,000 volunteers, comprising health workers, anganwadi workers and non government organisations that have been trained by the health department.

"People who are apparently normal without any symptoms or disease manifestation should also take the tablets so as to break the transmission of the disease in the community," stated D Thangaraj, principal secretary, Karnataka Health and Family Welfare services.

Residents in endemic areas may have filaria disease causing microfilaria worm in the blood. To know the presence of microfilaria, night blood examination should be done for every one. As night blood examination of the entire population is impractical because of inconvenience, disturbance and fear felt by people, resulting in poor response, the World Health Organisation has come out with a cost effective strategy to eliminate lymphatic filaria by a single intervention wherein every individual in the endemic population is given DEC annually for at least five years, informed Dr. J Chandramohan, joint director, (malaria and filaria), Karnataka directorate of health and family welfare.