Report of the 2015 Malawi Trachoma Mass Drug Administration (MDA) Coverage Survey in 9 Districts

Abstract

For Mass Drug administration(MDA), whereas it is recommended that at–least 85% coverage in a district is the optimal figure that needs to be reached for an MDA to be consider successful, standard trachoma drug coverage surveys only require 80%, as the cut off line to determine whether MDA was adequately done.1 Coverage surveys were conducted between November and December 2015 in 9 of the 13 districts (Nsanje, Zomba, Machinga, Mwanza, Neno, Ntcheu, Lilongwe East, Dowa and Ntchisi) that implemented MDA in 2015.Surveys were not conducted in Kasungu, Nkhotakota, Salima and Lilongwe West. The results indicate that 6 out of the 9 districts (Nsanje, Zomba, Mwanza, Neno, Ntcheu and Lilongwe east) had achieved the required coverage of at least 80% during the MDA.2 Four districts (Machinga, Dowa and Ntchis and Nsanje) failed to reach the desired coverage. It may be argued that Nsanje reached this, as the percentage was 79.8% and was rounded up to 80%. The Main reason for low coverage was attributed to delayed drug distribution, wrong population projections, shortage of in–country supplies of Zithromax, and maldistribution of Zithromax within districts.