Publication:

Coverage survey of mass drug administration for trachoma control in Taura district of Jigawa State Northern Nigeria

Background Trachoma is one of the neglected tropical diseases earmarked for elimination as a public health problem by 2030. Active trachoma-trachomatous inflammation-follicular (TF) is controlled through mass drug administration (MDA) with antibiotics where prevalence of TF exceeds 5% in children 1-9 years, with aim to achieve at least 80% as recommended by WHO. This study aimed to evaluate population-based MDA coverage for trachoma in Taura local government area, Jigawa state and compared it with administrative coverage to ascertain the effectiveness MDA programs.

Methods A cross-sectional survey using ‘30×7’ cluster random sampling (CRS) technique was carried out in 202 randomly selected households of 30 clusters of Taura local government area of Jigawa state. Administrative coverage was compared with the surveyed coverage rates.

Results The 1,047 persons received treatment during the MDA, giving a crude surveyed coverage of 69.7% (95% CI 67.4-72.0%). Nine hundred and 34 (89.2%) of those who received the antibiotics reported actual consumption, hence effective coverage of 62.2% (95% CI 59.7-64.8%) and coverage-compliance gap of 7.5%. The administrative coverage was 76.3%. Coverage was significantly higher in adults >15 years (p=0.005), female gender (p=0.043), higher literacy (p≤0.0001), and households’ participation in previous MDA (p≤0.0001).

Conclusions The findings of this survey were lower than the WHO-recommended coverage rate, thereby posing a threat to the trachoma elimination target. If the MDA programme is to succeed, there is need to explore all factors that are likely to have a potential for increasing MDA coverage of antibiotics for trachoma control in the district.