The Ministry of Health and Medical Services (MHMS) with support from the World Scabies Program (WSP) and the Fred Hollows Foundation has successfully completed a nationwide Mass Drug Administration (MDA) campaign to combat scabies along with Trachoma MDA in Guadalcanal and Choiseul.
The initiative, which reached communities across all nine provinces and Honiara City Council, is funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) and marks a significant milestone in the country’s ongoing efforts to eliminate neglected tropical diseases.
Scabies is an infectious disease of the skin with high prevalence in Solomon Islands and is classified by the World Health Organization as a neglected tropical disease. This MDA campaign was focused on reducing the spread of disease to improve overall health and well-being of Solomon Islanders.
In addition, Trachoma is the leading infectious cause of blindness and is endemic in Solomon Islands. Trachoma commonly affects children aged between 1 – 9 years during infectious stage and gradually leads to blindness when a person gets older if not properly treated.
For the past months, teams of healthcare workers have been travelling all over Solomon Islands to distribute medicines for scabies, aiming to treat everyone in the country. The program also raised awareness in the community about scabies and its implications.
The success of this program is due to the strong collaboration between the Ministry of Health and its partners. Solomon Islands is the first country in the world to complete two national MDA campaigns for scabies!
The Ministry of Health and Medical Services would like to thank all those involved in making the MDA campaign happen, including DFAT for funding the program, the health workforce for distributing the medicines, and the Solomon Islands community for participating and working towards stopping the spread of scabies.
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-MHMS Press release
