The Ministry of Health is preparing a mass drug distribution campaign targeting scabies and yaws at the community level.
As part of the preparation, a three days Training of Trainers (ToT) for the rollout of scabies and yaws drugs was conducted by the Ministry of Health.
Total of 45 participants comprising nurses, pharmacists, and health promotion staff from 8 provinces, including staff from the World Scabies Program and the Neglected Tropical Disease unit.
Scabies is endemic in the Solomon Islands and according to last year’s survey conducted in 10 villages in all the province, the prevalence rate for scabies is as high as 72 percent, with an average of 23.2 and 15.3 percent suffering from severe scabies.
The Health Ministry says this is a public health problem and if left untreated, the infection can lead to further health complications like heart and kidney diseases.
With yaws, more than 14,000 cases are reported from all clinics in the Solomon Islands through DHIS2, a health information management system, annually. Yaws if not treated, can cause disfiguring and deformities to the body.
Overall the goal of the program is to reduce the chain of transmission of yaws and scabies and thereby its prevalence in the country.
The training was facilitated by the Ministry of Health with support from WHO and World Scabies Program (WSP) of Murdoch Children’s Research Institute which has an active memorandum of understanding with MHMS to support this initiative.
Source: MHMS Media