The chief medical officer for Public Health in Tonga is warning against complacency towards lymphatic filariasis, which has finally been eliminated from the kingdom.
The World Health Organisation announced last month Tonga had won its battle against the mosquito borne disease, also known as elephantiasis.
It leads to severe disfigurement, pain and disability and has at times affected up to 50 percent of the Tongan population.
The chief medical officer Reynold Ofanoa told Sela Jane Hopgood about the steps that were taken to eradicate the tropical disease.
Photo: RNZI / Koro Vaka'uta
Transcript
REYNOLD OFANOA - WHO got together with relevant partners like Pacific Community in the 22 Pacific Island countries to start a program called the Pacific program to eliminate lymphatic filariasis and it contained the various policies and strategies mainly to eliminate lymphatic filariasis in this region. Tonga was involved in that program and we established our program in 2000. There was also surveys that was conducted up to the Mass Drug Administration to ascertain that the MAS is effective. We have work with WHO to evaluate the assessment that was done and we fit into the criteria as our result for application for elimination to declare that Tonga is one of the countries that has eliminated lymphatic filariasis as a public health problem.
SELA JANE HOPGOOD - Should people in Tonga be complacent now?
RO - Even though we have eliminated, it doesn't mean that we can relax that and say that things are fine. It's important for us to continue to be vigilant and also look at our control programs to make sure that it's in place and all the necessary measures that need to be implemented to maintain that elimination phase.
SJH - So it's possible for this tropical disease to be re-introduce into Tonga...
RO - Probably the risk is still there in the future especially with travel and countries in the Pacific where lymphatic filariasis is still an endemic, but I think our discussions with our technical partners, the risk is low at the moment, but I believe if we do our part and the countries in the region have good control programs then definitely the risk will be very low.
SJH - Was it quite an expensive disease to fight?
RO - I can't give you the exact figures, but I think it was a costly exercise because it involved Mass Drug Administration. It involved a lot of mobilisation of staff to the whole island kingdom in order to administer the drugs. Also to do follow up of surveys to ensure that we maintain the threshold that is required in order to declare elimination. That was a costly exercise because we needed to travel, either by air or by boat to the communities in order to conduct this work. Safety was an issue as well, but we are very fortunate that there were no adverse incidents during the process. Even though it's a costly exercise, I believe the partnership that we had with our stakeholders, it was a strength that was able to mobilize resources to assist us during the process of implementing all the work that was required for the programme to eliminate lymphatic filariasis.
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