Full Treatment Coverage in Burkina Faso

Burkina Faso’s national schistosomiasis and soil transmitted helminth control programme (PNLSc) organises the country’s second mass treatment campaign

Between the 18 and 27 October 2005, Burkina Faso’s national schistosomiasis and soil transmitted helminth control programme (PNLSc) organised the country’s second mass treatment campaign. The first mass treatment campaign was held in October 2004 and targeted 19 health districts in 4 priority regions. The 2004 campaign treated a total of 1,027,007 school-aged children (between 5 and 15 years old) and reached a coverage rate of 96.76% of those targeted.

The 2005 campaign was even more ambitious, and just as successful, as it targeted the 9 remaining regions in the country. Burkina Faso is therefore the first of the 3 West African countries, supported by the SCI, to reach their entire target population. This year’s mass treatment campaign targeted 36 health districts constituting a population of 2,543,918 school-aged children.

The success of the programmes lies in the fact that the PNLSc staff were well prepared and had distributed the tablets and treatment materials to the 36 districts, distributed appropriate funds to district representatives, and launched a targeted IEC campaign by the beginning of August. This preparation ensured that there was suitable time any organisational, treatment, and/or financial inquiries to be raised and answered prior to the campaign launch on the 17th of October.

The PNLSc is now preparing to conduct an evaluation of the programme which will take place in February 2006.