Kathmandu, September 23:

As a part of the campaign aimed at eradicating filaria, the Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) will distribute drugs in the districts where the concentration of filaria patients is high.

According to the MoHP, trained health workers and volunteers will distribute drugs to people living in Parsa, Makwanpur, Chitwan, and Rupendhehi tomorrow. “The drugs will be given to all the people living in the area, including the children above two years of age,” the MoHP said. Nikshya SJB Rana, the assistant minister for Health and Population, today appealed to the people at risk in the above-mentioned districts to take the drugs to protect themselves and others from the disease.

With the objective of eradicating filaria from the world by 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has been providing drugs for free. Apart from organising various awareness programmes, the government began providing drugs to eradicate the disease three years ago. Various programmes are being conducted in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, the Maldives and in Africa to eradicate filaria from the world by 2020.