Background: Mass drug administration (MDA), for control of filariasis was launched by government of India in 1996. Under this programme, all the beneficiaries in the age group of 2 to 60 years (excluding pregnant mothers, people above 60 and having other illness), will be administered tablet diethylcarbamazine (100mg) and one tablet of albendazole (400mg) once a year. In 2014 this exercise was carried out in the month of May. The objectives of the study were to review the progress of activities of single dose DEC mass administration and albendazole tablets in the selected Talukas and to make assessment of the programme implementation with respect to process and outcome indicators. Methods: After visiting the selected cluster, important landmark (temple, school, panchayat office etc.) was identified. A lane was randomly selected and house to house survey was conducted. This process was continued till we could cover about 30 houses. Results: Out of 651 population surveyed 332 (50.9%) were males and 319 (49.1%) were female, 309 people (47.4%) had taken full course, 69 (10.7%) had partially taken the drugs while 273 people (41.9%) had either not received the drugs or had not taken the tablet. 7 (1.1%) people have reported minor side effects like vomiting and dizziness. Conclusions: It has been observed that though the people have received the drug distributed not everyone has consumed the tablets. Hence instruction should be given to drug distributor that they ensure consumption of the drugs in their presence only.

Background: One of the key components of national rural health mission was to create a band of female health volunteers, appropriately named “accredited social health activist” (ASHA) in each village within the identified States to act as a bridge between the rural people and health services outlets. They act as health activists in community who will create awareness on health and its determinants, counsel mothers on key healthy behaviors and mobilize the community towards local health planning and increased utilization and accountability of the existing health services. Objectives of the study was to describe the socio-demographic profile of ASHAs working in Vijayapur district and to evaluate the knowledge, attitude, practice of ASHAs towards the maternal care.Methods: A cross-sectional study on 617 ASHAs of Vijayapur district. A pre-designed, semi- structured questionnaire was prepared in English and the interview was conducted in Kannada by explaining them questions one by one.Results: Out of 617 ASHAs interviewed, 427 (69.2%) of them told a pregnant woman should have antenatal care (ANC) visits and 413 (65.3%) ASHAs opined that a minimum of four ANC visits are required. While 542 (87.2%) ASHAs told that they should accompany pregnant woman transport to health centre during labour pains and 570 (92.8%) told that they should stay with the pregnant lady until her delivery is over. Also, it was found that knowledge of ASHAs regarding maternal care was significantly associated with age and duration of service of ASHAs.Conclusions: On the whole, knowledge of ASHAs about care during pregnancy and care of new-born was considerably good.