A house-owner let his dog on Lama, who had reached there to administer the medicine to the family. The dog bite has severely injured her leg, the District Public Health Office (DPHO), Kathmandu, said. The office said that Lama has been hospitalized and is receiving treatment.
"This is one among several incidents. People have not been cooperating with our health workers," said Geeta Acharya, the focal person of the campaign against elephantiasis at the DPHO.[break]
She complained that people do not even open their gates to listen to the health volunteers. "They think that the medicine is not needed to them and the disease only affects the poor," she added. She said that some people even humiliate the FCHVs when they request them to take medicines.
The Kathmandu DPHO had asked the doctors to consume the medicine in front people to clear their doubts about the medicine. Several public health officials with Kathmandu DPHO have already done so.
"We sent a team of doctor to Baneshwar area to persuade the public after the FCHVs failed to convince them," Acharya added.
She said that Sukedhara, Dhumbarahi, New Road and Asan are among the areas the FCHVs have been struggling to administer the drug. According to Acharya, one health volunteer ended up with a broken leg last year while trying to escape a dog released by a house-owner to chase her away.
The Chief of the Kathmandu DPHO, Shrikrishna Bhatta said that the city dwellers are the most unsupportive people when it comes to the health programs run by the government. "As a result, overall coverage of the health programs is very poor in the metropolis compared to the villages," Bhatta said.
The Kathmandu DPHO has sought help with the Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) for the successful implementation of the campaign.
Official data shows that up to 96 percent population in some wards of Kathmandu Metropolitan City (KMC) were not covered in the campaign against elephantiasis organized last year.
The Epidemiology and Disease Control Division (EDCD) said that people living in the apartments and colonies are usually the ones left out of the health programs.
"People have not been giving access to the government health volunteers. They think it is below them to talk to government sent health volunteer as they are less educated," said Dr G D Thakur, Director at EDCD. Due to the prevalence of such mentality, the metropolis has poor coverage during every health campaign.
Dr Thakur said that the people from outside the metropolis living here have been cooperating with the health volunteers. However, it is the Kathmandu denizens who are reluctant to trust the health programs launched by the government, he said.
According to Dr Bisho Raj Khanal, a senior public health official at EDCD, even the educated people in the metropolis have acted in a very disappointing manner. "We have not been able to convince them about the importance of the program," he said.
With many people in the metropolis rejecting the medicine, the government target of eliminating the disease by 2014 is set to fail. Officials at EDCD said that the office is considering extending the campaign.
The Officials at Child Health Division (CHD) said that they had to struggle to immunize all the children in the recently concluded measles-rubella campaign. "Even the renowned schools obstructed our volunteers," said Dr Taranath Pokhrel, chief of CHD. He said that they had to urge District Education Officer (DEO) to pressure the schools to let the health volunteers do their job.
The poor health infrastructures, floating population and inadequate manpower in the health services are considered to be other reasons for the low coverage.
Dr GD Thakur
Director, Epidemiology and Disease Control Division (EDCD)
The coverage of the much hyped campaign against Lymphatic Filariasis (LF) is already low. Why does the government launch campaigns without adequate preparations?
You know that the full budget for the ongoing fiscal year has not been released yet. Due to the budgetary constraints we had difficulty in starting the campaign on time. But I am not ready to concede that we started the campaign in haste and without preparations. Necessary trainings have been imparted to all health workers and Female Community Health Volunteers (FCHVs). Awareness campaigns have been launched through many mass media outlets. Health workers and volunteers have been knocking on every door to request the people to consume medicines provided in the campaign.
Last year´s record shows that coverage of the campaign is only four percent in some wards.
Lymphatic Filariasis campaign has been launched in 83 countries. If we see the coverage of the campaign in cities and capitals, we find similar trend in almost all the countries. Village dwellers cooperate with the government launched campaign, but city dwellers hold different views about free campaigns. They think that the campaign is not for the special class of people. However, the prevalence rate of the disease is still very high even in the capitals. So I urge all the people to cooperate with health workers and take the drugs.
Some medicines distributed in a campaign last year had crossed the expiry date. Some people died after consuming the medicines. How can people trust in such campaigns?
Some human error had happened in the last year´s campaign. We immediately corrected those errors. But I am not ready to accept that people died due to the medicines. A lot of people have been dying every day. We should generalize such deaths as having caused by medicines. The medicines distributed in the campaign are World Health Organization (WHO) Good Manufacturing Practice (GMP) certified. So we should not question the quality of the drugs. We have not been vocal in defending the negative news broadcast by some media. That is why people now hesitate to take medicines.
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