By Rodrigo S. Victoria

Naval, Biliran (4 October) -- Even if there was no reported case of persons affected with the parasitic disease known as Lymphatic Filariasis (LF), the health workers in the municipality of Naval led by Dr. Fernando B. Montejo, Naval Municipal Health Officer (MHO) together with the school nurses of both the elementary and secondary schools and other concerned government agencies in the municipality have prepared a comprehensive plan of action to prevent the occurrence of the disease in the area.in a meeting held yesterday at the office of the MHO.

According to Dr. Montejo, the province of Biliran is considered one of the LF endemic provinces in the country with a microfilaria rate of 0.54. The province of Biliran has the lowest microfilaria rate out of the six provinces comprising the Eastern Visayas region based on the list of LF endemic provinces in the country.

Dr. Montejo revealed that there were already eight reported cases of persons affected with lymphatic filariasis in the province based on the report submitted by the eight MHOs in the province of Biliran.

Based on the report submitted, the municipality of Kawayan has the highest number with four cases followed by Caibiran with three cases and Culaba with one case.

Although there was no reported case of persons affected with lymphatic filariasis in the municipality of Naval, it but important that preventive measures must be put in place so that the disease will no longer affect any single member in the community, Dr. Montejo said.

Dr. Montejo said that the plan of action include the conduct of mass treatment of all community members aged two years old and above in the twenty-six barangays in the municipality. The plan specified the giving of 400 milligrams Albendazole and 50 milligrams Diethyl carbamazine citrate tablets whose number of tablet to be taken in depend on the age of the person.

The health workers and other persons involved in the mass treatment have agreed during the meeting that the mass treatment will be conducted starting November 7 until December 14 this year in order to cover all the target population in the community.

Two teams were organized by the body in order to effectively and efficiently administer the mass treatment in the community. The first team is composed of the health workers in the local government unit of Naval while the second team is composed of school nurses of the Department of Education and from the different secondary schools in Naval here in the province of Biliran.

The first team is responsible in giving the mass treatment to the people in the community while the second team is responsible in administering the mass treatment in both the pupils and students of public and private pre-elementary, elementary and secondary schools including all the students of the Naval Institute of Technolgy (NIT).

The local health chief also said that a film showing regarding lymphatic filarisis will be shown in the community in order for the members in the community to be informed and be aware of what is all about the disease.

Dr. Montejo added that the mass treatment of the parasitic disease transmitted to human being by microfilaria carrying mosquito is up to five years starting this year.