The recent deaths of eight residents in Bandung regency, West Java, has not discouraged the Health Ministry to resume the lymphatic filariasis mass medication program.
Health Minister Endang Rahayu Sedyaningsih said Tuesday that mass medication was needed because 40 million people currently inflicted with the microfilarial worm are at risk of infecting 125 million other people in areas susceptible to the disease.
Endang said the casualties and cases of the alleged poisoning of 800 residents in Bandung regency after consuming anti-filarial medicine Nov. 10 was not related to the mass medication.
She said the ministry would resume the program on 57 million people in 98 regencies and mayoralties across the country in 2010, including around 2.7 million people in Bandung regency above two years of age.
From October this year, a blood test survey showed microfilarial worms had infected the blood of 19 percent of the country’s population. Patients suffering from one symptom, elephantiasis, or skin and underlying tissue thickening, are spread across 386 cities and regencies in Indonesia.
“I rely completely on the analysis, and the filariasis eradication program will continue,” Endang said, who was convincing Family Welfare Movement and Family Planning activists to continue the program during an anti-filariasis discussion in Bandung regency Tuesday.
The ministry has targeted 57 million people for 2010, including 12 million of the 32 million who need medication this year.
Endang was subject to criticism by activists. Activist Hidayat Bastaman said the mass-medication campaign was ineffective.
According to procedures, the anti-filarial medicine consists of diethyl carbamazinecitrate, albendhazo and paracetamol to reduce fever after consuming the medicine, advised to be taken in the evening.
However, many residents in Bandung regency received the medicine in the morning. The medicine was not provided to children below the age of two, pregnant and breast-feeding mothers and people suffering from heart disease and diabetes.
“We were used as human guinea pigs. If the medicine was safe, why were there victims?” Bastaman said.
A large part of the anti-filariasis campaign fund of Rp 2.1 billion (US$220,000), from the Bandung regency budget, was used to pay activists to motivate them.
West Java Health Office chief Alma Lucyati said the mass anti-filariasis medication program would be exercised in 24 cities and regencies in the province next year.
West Java has recorded 980 patients suffering from acute lymphatic filariasis in 267 villages and 147 districts in 24 cities and regencies. It recorded 11 areas susceptible to the disease, Bekasi city and regency, Bogor city and regency, Depok city, Karawang, Purwakarta, Subang, Tasikmalaya, Kuningan and Bandung regencies.
