After the appearance last year of new cases of Filariasis, particularly in Futuna, the territory’s ADS is strengthening its fight against this disease. 3-drug treatment and vector control measures are being implemented with a launch of this treatment in March 2025. But beforehand, the health agency carried out a survey to understand how the population of Futuna perceives and knows about Filariasis. From October 28 to 31, 250 people from Futuna were surveyed. And it ultimately turns out that in general residents still know little about the pathology.
In October 2023, new cases of filariasis were diagnosed in Futuna. Since then, around thirty cases have been recorded. This is a wake-up call for the health agency to act.
The sick are treated, but to relaunch mass treatment, the ADS needs the opinion of the population. 250 adults were therefore approached from October 28 to 31, 2024. 96% responded favorably to the survey.
A questionnaire on their knowledge of filariasis, their adherence to a new treatment campaign and the preferred means of communication to raise awareness. The results are satisfactory. “Nearly 9 out of 10 people support the reintroduction of treatment to combat filariasis and 83% are ready for their children to benefit from this treatment. These are very encouraging results, there is a need for against reinforcing the messages since we realized that knowledge was rather average or even low in the population, and that will be the work of the coming months to disseminate information messages to reinforce knowledge regarding screw the illness And so today, we would only have 5% of undecided people in the population, which is quite a good thing. says Clément Couteaux, epidemiologist at ADS.
Strengthen information and awareness about filariasis by health professionals and the media, especially radio. These are the recommendations resulting from the investigation.
A study of this kind is a first for the ADS. It makes it possible to organize the relaunch of mass processing. The next step, inform the chiefdoms of Futuna before the launch of the treatment which will be done in 2 administrations, March 2025 and March 2026. “We will actually stick to the treatment that everyone knows, notezine which has been distributed in Wallis and Futuna since the 1980s, and which was mainly distributed as part of the disease elimination program between 2002 and 2007. It was not distributed alone at the time, we distributed an additional molecule Today, we will add an additional molecule according to WHO recommendations since 2018 which has been implemented. now uses triple therapy to combat filariasis.”
3 drugs to eliminate Filariasis in Futuna. For Wallis, current surveillance data do not detect new emergences of this pathology. But an investigation will be carried out next year to establish the situation in Wallis.
Lymphatic filariasis, or elephantiasis, is a parasitic disease transmitted to humans by mosquitoes. It re-emerged in 2023, particularly in Futuna, and led the Health Agency to strengthen its surveillance. The fight against filariasis involves three-drug treatment and vector control measures.
An anonymous survey was carried out in Futuna among the adult population, from October 28 to 31, 2024, in order to better understand residents’ perceptions of this disease.
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