title: Is the coverage of mass-drug-administration adequate for elimination of Bancroftian filariasis? An experience from West Bengal, India.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Bancroftian filariasis is the second most common mosquito-borne disease in India. Government of India adopted mass-drug-administration (MDA) since 2004 for its elimination by 2015 AD.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The aim was to assess the coverage, compliance, factors-related to noncompliance to MDA.
  
  
  METHODS
  A cross-sectional survey of 1 week was conducted within 2 weeks after completion of MDA for 2012 in three villages and two municipal wards of North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, India selected as clusters by multistage random sampling. Information was collected via interview of inhabitants of the clusters selected by systematic random sampling and drug administrators of the selected clusters along with verifying left over medicines, if any.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Both appropriate medicine distribution (83.4%) and 61.28% of people who received drug reported consumption and effective consumption rate (48.01%) fell short of the target. The lowest consumption (38.15%) was noted in one of the rural cluster (villages), followed by municipal wards (43.14%). Consumption was significantly higher among rural residents and Hindu community. Fear of the adverse reaction was the commonest (63.02%) cause of noncompliance. Contrary to the requirement, almost all consumptions were unsupervised by drug administrators. Only 10.71% of the respondents reportedly were paid house to house campaign of forthcoming MDA. About 64% participants had heard about filariasis out of which 71% & 47% mentioned swelling of legs as symptoms and mosquito bite as mode of spread, respectively. About one-third opined mosquito control and MDA each as means of prevention. Approximately, 60% participants had heard about MDA. Information education and communication related to MDA program was conspicuously inadequate in the last round.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Mass mobilization as in intensive pulse polio immunization with effective monitoring and supervision is the need of the hour for universal coverage of MDA with supervised on the spot consumption of tablets.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, R. G. Kar Medical College, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
authors.forename: Dibakar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Haldar
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry, Bankura Sammilani Medical College, Bankura, West Bengal, India.
authors.forename: Debkumar
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ghosh
authors.affiliation: Department of Anatomy, Bankura Sammilani Medical College, Bankura, West Bengal, India.
authors.forename: Dhruba
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mandal
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, R. G. Kar Medical College, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
authors.forename: Abhik
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sinha
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, Bankura Sammilani Medical College, Bankura, West Bengal, India.
authors.forename: Gautam Narayan
authors.initials: GN
authors.lastname: Sarkar
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Medicine, R. G. Kar Medical College, Kolkata, West Bengal, India.
authors.forename: Sucharita
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Sarkar
keywords: Compliance; filariasis elimination; mass-drug-administration; supervision