Vector Control, Rehab Services team-up to cater to filaria patients

Oct 22, 2017 News

Moves are apace to have the Vector Control Services Unit of the Georgetown Public Hospital Corporation [GPHC] and the Rehabilitation Services of the Ministry of Public Health, help address conditions that could debilitate patients

Dr. Allena Hercules

inflicted with lymphatic filariasis [filaria].
This is according to Government Medical Officer [GMO] attached to the Vector Control Services Unit, Dr. Allena Hercules, who disclosed that while there exists a central clinic for patients suffering from filaria, “We will be collaborating with the Rehabilitation Services in the near future so that they will be able to assist our patients from a community-based level.”
Dr. Hercules revealed that as early as next year, too, keen efforts will be made to decentralise the services offered to filaria patients with the support of the Rehabilitation Services, since this spreads across Guyana.
This move is being engaged even as the Ministry of Public Health conducts a massive campaign to wage war against filaria.
Filaria is a painful and profoundly disfiguring disease which is caused by parasites classified as nematodes or roundworms of the family Filariodidea, according to the World Health Organisation [WHO].
The WHO has also pointed out that since filaria is known to impair the lymphatic system, it can lead to the abnormal enlargement of body parts, causing pain and severe disability that attract social stigma. The common sign is swelling and you can have swelling to the lower limbs [commonly referred to as big foot], the arms, breast and the scrotum in males.
The Public Health Ministry has been distributing pills [Diethylcarbamazine [DEC] and Albendazole] to destroy the parasites that cause filaria before signs and symptoms of the disease start to manifest.
But according to Dr. Hercules, there are some people who have not been willing to accept pills because they are convinced that they have not been infected.
However, she noted that right at the clinic at the Vector Control Services Unit [located in the compound of the GPHC], persons can opt to be tested before they take the pills.
“The test is done by microscopy in much the way that malaria is tested for. Testing for filaria is a process that must be done at nights, since this is when the worms are believed to be active. Persons will need three consecutive tests before the infection can be confirmed as positive,” said Dr. Hercules.
Tests for filaria are conducted on Monday, Wednesday and Friday nights.
According to the GMO, there are persons who may present with symptoms such as swelling, similar to filaria, but they may be found to be negative for filaria parasites. But she noted that once patients present with signs and symptoms and are found to be positive for filaria, they are eligible to attend clinic.
Clinic sessions, according to Dr. Hercules, are designed to help reduce disabilities in patients. “We do lymphedema management, or prevent patients’ conditions from moving from one stage to the next. Lymphatic swelling can move from stage one to stage six, but the pills kill the worms to prevent the possibility of advancement,” said Dr. Hercules.
But even without symptoms or a positive test, Dr. Hercules said that persons are still at risk if they and those around them fail to take the pills to prevent filaria.
Filaria is transmitted by the Culex mosquitoes which are known to thrive in stagnant water.
The WHO has explained that “mosquitoes are infected with microfilariae [the parasite] by ingesting blood when biting an infected host.”
“When infected mosquitoes bite people, mature parasite larvae are deposited on the skin from where they can enter the body. The larvae then migrate to the lymphatic vessels where they develop into adult worms, thus continuing a cycle of transmission,” WHO has outlined.
According to Dr. Hercules, “You can have the worms and the worms might be in the process of causing damage, but once you take the pills, they kill the worm and prevent any possibility of symptoms manifesting.”
The ongoing filaria campaign will see a wide cross section of citizens taking a specified dose of filaria pills once yearly for five years. From age two to five, one DEC and one albendazole pill is being administered, from age six to 14, one albendazole and two DEC pills, and for those 15 and older, one albendazole and three DEC pills.

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