Greater Adherence to Mass Drug AdministrationAgainst Lymphatic Filariasis through TraditionalVillage Forums in Fiji

Moala-Silatolu, Anasaini; Nakamura, Keiko; Seino, Kaoruko; Kizuki, Masashi

doi:10.2185/jrm.7.65

Cited by 2 publications

(5 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…Looking back at program reports [ 33 , 34 ], the standout challenge seemed to be MDA coverage and compliance. A study done in Central Division in Fiji in 2010 observed that participation in traditional village forums in Fiji was related to taking roles in community activities for MDA and associated with adherence to MDA regimen regardless of age, gender, and the educational attainment of the individual residents [ 36 ]. Looking forward, any future promotion endeavors required for MDA need to take the importance of community engagement into account.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lymphatic filariasis in Fiji: progress towards elimination, 1997–2007

et al. 2020

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Background Lymphatic filariasis (LF) is a major public health problem in the Pacific Region, including in Fiji. Through transmission by the mosquito vector Aedes, Fiji has suffered the burden of remaining endemic with LF despite efforts at elimination prior to 1999. In the year 1999, Fiji agreed to take part in the Pacific Programme for Elimination of LF (PacELF) and the Global Programme to Eliminate LF. Methods This study reviewed and collated past data on LF in Fiji between 1997 and 2007. Sources included published papers as well as unpublished PacELF and WHO program meeting and survey reports. Records were held at Fiji’s Department of Health and Medical Services, James Cook University and the WHO office in Suva, Fiji. Results Baseline surveys between 1997 and 2002 showed that Fiji was highly endemic for LF with an estimated 16.6% of the population antigen positive and 6.3% microfilaria positive at that time. Five rounds of annual mass drug administration (MDA) using albendazole and diethylcarbamazine commenced in 2002. Programmatic coverage reported was 58–70% per year, but an independent coverage survey in 2006 in Northern Division after the fifth MDA suggested that actual coverage may have been higher. Monitoring of the program consisted of antigen prevalence surveys in all ages with sentinel and spot check surveys carried out in 2002 (pre MDA), 2004, and 2005, together with knowledge, attitude, and practice surveys. The stop-MDA survey (C survey) in 2007 was a nationwide stratified cluster survey of all ages according to PacELF guidelines, designed to sample by administrative division to identify areas still needing MDA. The national antigen prevalence in 2007 was reduced by more than a third to 9.5%, ranging from 0.9% in Western Division to 15.4% in Eastern Division, while microfilaria prevalence was reduced by almost four-fifths to 1.4%. Having not reached the target threshold of 1% prevalence in all ages, Fiji wisely decided to continue MDA after 2007 but to move from nationwide implementation to four (later five) separate evaluation units with independent timelines using global guidelines, building on program experience to put more emphasis on increasing coverage through prioritized communication strategies, community participation, and morbidity alleviation. Conclusion Fiji conducted nationwide MDA for LF annually between 2002 and 2006, monitored by extensive surveys of prevalence, knowledge, and coverage. From a high baseline prevalence in all divisions, large reductions in overall and age-specific prevalence were achieved, especially in the prevalence of microfilariae, but the threshold for stopping MDA was not reached. Fiji has a large rural and geographically widespread population, program management was not consistent over this period, and coverage achieved was likely not optimal in all areas. After learning from these many challenges and activities, Fiji was able to build on the progress achieved and the heterogeneity observed in prevalence to realign towards a more stratified and improved program after 2007. The information presented here will assist the country to progress towards validating elimination in subsequent years.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Lymphatic filariasis in Fiji: progress towards elimination, 1997–2007

et al. 2020

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“…As another top-down approach, sensitization activities provided information to health personnel so it could flow downward to communities and individuals [ 57 , 68 ]. Involving health workers or health volunteers [ 58 ], community drug distributors [ 55 ], health activists [ 54 ], nurses, school teachers, or political leaders [ 53 ], as well as working with existing local structures such as village health forums [ 65 ], schools and churches [ 53 ], were also proposed as effective strategies to disseminate information and deliver interventions. Even the family is seen as a persuasive channel, for shaping treatment priorities [ 53 , 54 , 67 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…As such, dialogic communicators claim that top-down LF strategies too often neglect contextual, economic, and political factors [ 63 , 64 ]. Dialogic approaches, such as community partnership seek to directly incorporate patients’ experience [ 61 ], existing local social structures [ 65 ], and respect for local knowledge [ 64 ] [ 66 ] in implementation efforts. In these approaches, interpersonal communication is used to facilitate trust-based relationships rather than as a channel to send a top-down message [ 68 , 69 ].…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…About one-third of the studies addressed the community level of change (n = 6, 33.3%). These studies called for increasing community participation (n = 5, 27.8%) [55,56,[63][64][65], facilitating collective action (n = 2, 11%) [64,66], or altering the structure of programs and services (n = 1, 5.6%) [63]. About one in eight studies targeted the interpersonal level of change (n = 3, 16.7%).…”

Section: Communication Actions In Lymphatic Filariasis (Lf) Eliminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Dialogic activities were performed less often. As indicated in the simplified table of results (Table 1), health education strategies were the most common approach (n = 8, 44.4%) [53][54][55][58][59][60]62,67], followed by message design and dissemination (n = 7, 33.3%) [53,[58][59][60][61]64,69], distribution of communication materials (n = 5, 27.8%) [53,54,59,67,68], and insertion of messages into existing networks and social structures (n = 5, 27.8%) [63][64][65]69,70]. Significantly, only a couple of cases used these four common strategies under a dialogic angle [64,70].…”

Section: Communication Actions In Lymphatic Filariasis (Lf) Eliminationmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Communication in Neglected Tropical Diseases’ elimination: A scoping review and call for action

Nieto-Sánchez

Hatley²,

Grijalva³

et al. 2022

PLoS Negl Trop Dis

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Background Although the practice of communication is often called upon when intervening and involving communities affected by NTDs, the disciplinary framework of health communication research has been largely absent from NTD strategies. To illustrate how practices conceptualized and developed within the communication field have been applied in the context of NTD elimination, we conducted a scoping review focusing on two diseases currently targeted for elimination by the WHO: lymphatic filariasis and Chagas disease. Methods We examined studies published between 2012 and 2020 in five electronic databases. Selected articles were required to (i) have explicit references to communication in either the abstract, title, or key words; (ii) further elaborate on the search terms (communication, message, media, participation and health education) in the body of the article; and (iii) sufficiently describe communication actions associated to those terms. Using the C-Change Socio-Ecological Model for Social and Behavior Change Communication as a reference, the articles were analysed to identify communication activities, theoretical frameworks, and/or rationales involved in their design, as well as their intended level of influence (individual, interpersonal, community, or enabling environment). Results and implications A total of 43 articles were analysed. Most interventions conceptualized communication as a set of support tools or supplemental activities delivering information and amplifying pre-defined messages aimed at increasing knowledge, encouraging community involvement, promoting individual behavior change, or securing some degree of acceptability of proposed strategies. Although important attempts at further exploring communication capabilities were identified, particularly in participation-based strategies, for most studies, communication consisted of an underdeveloped and under-theorized approach. We contend that a more complex understanding of the capacities offered by the health communication field could help attain the biomedical and social justice goals proposed in NTD elimination strategies. Three ways in which the field of health communication could further enhance NTD efforts are presented: informing interventions with theory-based frameworks, exploring the political complexity of community participation in specific contexts, and identifying conceptualizations of culture implied in interventions’ design. Conclusion This article is a call to action to consider the resources offered by the health communication field when researching, designing, or implementing NTD interventions.

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Greater Adherence to Mass Drug AdministrationAgainst Lymphatic Filariasis through TraditionalVillage Forums in Fiji

Cited by 2 publications

References 19 publications

Lymphatic filariasis in Fiji: progress towards elimination, 1997–2007

Lymphatic filariasis in Fiji: progress towards elimination, 1997–2007

Communication in Neglected Tropical Diseases’ elimination: A scoping review and call for action

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