Did you know?

Mass Drug Administration

What is it?

Mass Drug Administration (MDA) is the administration of drugs to entire populations, irrespective of disease status, in order to control, prevent or eliminate common or widespread disease.

IMA World Health currently oversees and/or supports MDA programs for Lymphatic Filariasis and Soil Transmitted Helminthes (STH) in Haiti and Onchocerciasis in Democratic Republic of Congo.

As with its morbidity management programs, IMA strives to involve and empower communities to manage their own MDA programs as much as possible through education, training and oversight.

What We Do

Haiti: A Community Effort to Combat LF and STH

In collaboration with the Haitian Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education, IMA leads the implementation of a massive five-year MDA program, funded by USAID through RTI International, to eliminate LF and control STH – two major neglected tropical diseases affecting millions in Haiti.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the University of Notre Dame are key program partners, and the World Health Organization/ Pan-American Health Organization and GlaxoSmithKline act as supporting agents. The IMA-led portion of the MDA treated over four million people for LF and STH in the 2009/2010 cycle alone.

A major strength of the program is local community involvement and leadership. In order to ensure the highest success rates, IMA has trained respected community volunteers to serve as program leaders, to oversee distribution posts and to supervise nearly 17,000 trained volunteers who distribute medications and promote the program.

The program has been so successful that coverage of the entire nation of Haiti is expected by 2011.

Democratic Republic of Congo: Oversight and Training

Since 2002, IMA World Health has collaborated with the African Programme for Onchocerciasis Control (a division of WHO) to support a community-directed mass drug administration project that administers Ivermectin to over 1.2 million people in the extremely vulnerable Bandundu Province in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

IMA's role consists of supervising the activities of 225 health care facilities and training health personnel, trainers and community mobilizers how to create and manage a regular, sustainable Onchocerciasis treatment and prevention program in the DRC. Thanks to this and other Community Directed Treatment with Ivermectin (CDTI) programs, the overall burden of the disease has decreased significantly in many parts of Africa.

Tanzania: Financial and Technical Support

IMA provides the Ministry of Health and Social Welfare (MOHSW) in Tanzania with financial and technical support to implement a five disease integrated Neglected Tropical Disease program. The targeted diseases include: Onchocerciasis, Lymphatic Filariasis, Schistosomiasis, Soil-transmitted Helminthes and Trachoma.

Treatment and control of these diseases will be through Mass Drug administration (MDA) in which the target population takes an annual combination of drugs distributed through schools and communities through community volunteers and teachers.