Even as some 1,401 persons from households in Cove and John to Nooten Zuil, along the East Coast of Demerara have so far taken filaria pills, the Ministry of Health, in a Department of Public Information (DPI) press release, has said that the campaign has been plagued by high number of refusals from households.
This was disclosed to DPI by Nurse in charge of the Victoria Health Centre, Chrisny McKinnon on Saturday last.
The initiative, a part of the Ministry of Health’s Mass Drug Administration campaign to eliminate filaria in Regions Three and Four, was recently launched. Nurse McKinnon pointed out, “We are going around to various communities and homes to provide filaria medication to persons. We have been having high rates of refusals from households. However, we are trying to see how much we can best answer their questions to alleviate any of their fears so that we can eliminate this disease from our communities and country.”
McKinnon said that individuals with doubts about the filaria pills can visit the ministry’s website, Facebook page or the health centres in their communities for information about filaria. “Before you go ahead and take the medication, we also have supervisors coming out to speak to those persons who have refused to take the medication to find out a little bit more about why they have refused it and what we can do to alleviate some of the fears they may have,” she explained.