Haiti [Women] take on dreaded disease elephantiasis one mouth at a time

David Brown – Washington Post – Wednesday, 03 October 2012 (originally published 30 Sept)

Swollen legs of women with “elephantiasis”

Fighting disease in Haiti: Officials in Haiti are using “mass drug administration” to fight a parasitic infection that can cause permanent swelling. Image: Maggie Steber/For The Washington Post

In JACMEL, Haiti — In a sunny courtyard of the Evelina Levy School for Girls, hundreds of girls in blue uniforms did their part to rid Haiti of an ancient and reviled disease.

They lined up in pairs to get three pills dropped into their mouths. They swallowed them down with a quarter-cup of water. They got a second medicine, a flavored tablet, to chew as they walked back to class.

“Mass drug administration” is easy if your target is elementary school students. It’s harder when you want to reach nearly everyone else in a country of 10 million people . . .

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