IOSR Journal of Dental and Medical Sciences (IOSR-JDMS) e-ISSN: 2279-0853, p-ISSN: 2279-0861.Volume 14, Issue 10 Ver. V (Oct. 2015), PP 40-44 www.iosrjournals.org DOI: 10.9790/0853-141054044 www.iosrjournals.org 40 | Page Coverage, compliance and bottlenecks of Mass Drug Administration Programme for eliminating Lymphatic Filariasis: Experience from North 24 Parganas, West Bengal 1 Dr. Rivu Basu, 2 Dr Debjit Sarkar, 2 Dr Sreetama Banerjee, 2 Dr Baisakhi Maji, 2 Dr. Sudhanshu Saha Ray, 3 Saibendu Kumar Lahiri 1 Assistant Professor, 2 Post Graduate Trainee, 3 Professor & Head of the Department All the authors belong to Department of Community Medicine, R G Kar Medical College. Abstract: Background: The Mass drug administration is one of the main stays of Filaria Control in India. The endemic districts are covered by this MDA once every year with extensive microplanning, in one shot. Objectives: the study was conducted to assess coverage and compliance to MDA, also to identify the factors for noncompliance and the bottlenecks of the programme. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted after completion of MDA for November, 2014 in three villages and one municipal ward of North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal, by multistage random sampling. Information was collected through interview of one responsible person from each family from those selected areas. Results: Overall coverage and compliance were 95.9% and 83.9% respectively, though 100% consumption was unsupervised and 28.4% consumed the drugs later.Compliance was significantly higher in the rural cluster. Fear of the adverse reaction was the commonest (49.5%) cause of noncompliance.Only 45.5% had some idea about the reason of the drugs. Conclusion: This study showed that the MDA coverage, though actually quiet high has further scope of improvement through more community participation, effective micro planning, supervision and monitoring. Key words: Awareness, compliance, filariasis, mass drug administration, West Bengal. I. Introduction Lymphatic filariasis (LF) is a worldwide prevalent and also potentially eradicable disease with an estimated 120 million people in tropical and subtropical areas of the world are infected with this. Approximately 66% of those at risk of infection live in the WHO South-East Asia Region. Of 72 countries listed by WHO as being endemic for lymphatic filariasis, 68 countries have completed mapping their endemic foci. (1) Wuchereria bancrofti as a causative organism accounts for over 90% of the global burden. India contributes about 40% of the total global burden. (2) In India,Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) is still endemic in 250 districts of 20 states / Union Territories in the country. States like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharastra, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Utter Pradesh and West Bengal contribute to about 95% of total burden (2) . In 1998, the WHO had targeted the elimination of this disease and formulated a Global Program on Elimination of LF (GPELF). (3) The basic features of this program are mass-drug-administration (MDA) with appropriate antifilarial drugs and morbidity management Since the launch of the programme, there has been consistent and steady increase in the number of countries implementing MDA from 12 in 2000 to 59 in 2010 with the total number of population treated under MDA from 2.9 million to more than 500 millions. (1) Accordingly, India‟s National Vector Borne Disease Control Program had scaled-up Several strategies for control of LF (i.e. antiadult measures , antilarval measures, IEC, observing “National filarial Day” [NFD]in the month of November). (4) Mass Drug administration (MDA) of antifilarial drug launched in 2004 by the Government of India, is a useful approach for elimination of LF. This newer strategy for elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis aims at breaking the chain of transmission through annual single-dose Mass Drug Administration (MDA) which reduces blood microfilaria by 99% when two drugs [Ivermectin + Diethyl Carbamazine Citrate (DEC) or Albendazole] are co-administered and by 90% when single drug (Ivermectin or DEC) is used (5) .During mass treatment, all the members of the community are given DEC except children under 2 years, pregnant woman and seriously ill patients. A high coverage (>85%) in endemic areas, sustained for consecutive 5 years, is required to achieve the interruption of transmission and elimination of disease. (4) A single dose Albendazole, combined with DEC is the current recommended drug regimen for MDA in West Bengal. After drug administration in North 24 Parganas district, Post MDA assessment survey was conducted by Department of Community Medicine, R G Kar Medical College, with the following specific objectives to assess