The Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) and the Guadalcanal Provincial Health Services roll out an integrated Mass-Drug-Administration (MDA) for trachoma and Soil-Transmitted Helminths (STH) baseline survey this week.
Choiseul and Guadalcanal are the two provinces identified with high prevalence of trachoma during the 2019 survey that are recommended to conduct MDA. Based on WHO’s recommendation, both provinces required to undertake three rounds of MDA. The first round was done last year 2024 for both provinces.
MDA is a public health intervention with an aim to reduce community transmissions of a disease in a given population of a geographical area.
Before the teams travelled to the communities, the program commenced with an integrated training activity. Total of 43 personnels attended the training (Nurses and public health graduates). Of them, twelve assigned to conduct STH survey. A representative from the NRH Medical lab to assist in the data analysis for STH survey attended the training. The STH training was facilitated by a representative from the Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales (UNSW), Sydney.
Although STH is recognized as a health problem predominantly affecting mostly children under 15 years in the Solomon Islands, the MHMS is yet to determine its actual burden of the diseases. The NTD program is therefore committed to collecting this information through the baseline STH survey, to inform both the Guadalcanal health authorities and the MHMS, and to provide the evidence needed to guide targeted interventions.
With the dynamic geographical landscape and with wider distribution of the population of the province, the program does not rule out meeting challenges. However, we are optimistic and looking forward to achieving the objectives of the program
People of Guadalcanal provinces will expect teams of the MDA and the STH survey to come around into their communities. The drug for the MDA is Azithromycin. This is a safe drug that have been used everywhere around the world including Solomon Islands and the Guadalcanal province.
Completing the MDA in Guadalcanal could enable the Solomon Islands to advance toward eliminating trachoma nationally, while the findings of the STH survey will support the Ministry of Health and the Guadalcanal Provincial Health team in understanding the actual burden of STH, ultimately guiding appropriate actions for its control.
The MDA was supported by the Fred Hollows Foundation – Australia, while the Kirby Institute, UNSW Sydney, supported the STH survey under the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) Partnership Project Grant. Funding was provided by the Australian Government through these two organizations.
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