A patient washes his leg, which is swollen from lymphedema caused by lymphatic filariasis.— Photo RTI InternationalHanoi (VNA) – The World Health Organisation (WHO) has announced
that Vietnam has eliminated lymphatic filariasis as a .
According to the WHO, lymphatic filariasis is an to
humans by mosquitoes.
The painful and profoundly disfiguring visible manifestations of the disease –
lymphoedema, elephantiasis and scrotal swelling – occur later in life and can
lead to permanent disability.
Patients are not only physically disabled but also suffer mental, social and
financial losses contributing to stigmatisation and poverty.
WHO said elimination of is possible by stopping the spread
of infection through large-scale treatment (called mass drug administration)
delivered in annual doses to all at-risk individuals in endemic areas.
The medicines have a limited effect on adult parasites but effectively reduce
the density of microfilariae in the bloodstream and thus prevent the spread of
parasites to mosquitoes.
The WHO also said that in Vietnam, references to the disease go back more than
a century. The prevalence of infection gradually declined in many areas through
environmental changes, improvements in housing, increased use of bed nets and
selective treatment.
Annual mass treatment campaigns between 2002 and 2008 stopped transmission in
remaining endemic areas, and surveillance has continued. Last year, the country
established a pioneering new training programme to ensure sustained care for
people with complications from lymphatic filariasis.
Besides Vietnam, Palau, and Wallis and Futuna have eliminated lymphatic
filariasis.
Since the WHO launched the Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis
in 2000, a total of 11 countries and areas in the Western Pacific Region have
been recognised for eliminating lymphatic filariasis as a public health
problem: Cambodia, China, Cook Islands, Niue, the Marshall Islands, Palau, the
Republic of Korea, Tonga, Vanuatu, Vietnam, and Wallis and Futuna. – VNA
Source: VietnamPlus
