Courtney Hofman, University of Notre Dame
“Lymphatic Filariasis Non-Compliance in Egypt”
Bio: Courtney Hofman is a senior Biology and Anthropology dual degree at the University of Notre Dame. Since her freshman year, she has worked with Notre Dame's Haiti Program, which is trying to eliminate the disease Lymphatic filariasis (LF) in Haiti. While studying abroad in Cairo, during the spring of 2008, Courtney worked on a project with the Egyptian program to eliminate LF to examine the social and cultural reasons why people did not take the medicine available for disease elimination.
Abstract: In 2000, the World Health Organization and the Egyptian Ministry of Health partnered with local health care providers to tackle the endemic disease Lymphatic filariasis, or LF, in Egyptian communities particularly at risk. LF is often forgotten because it is not fatal, however, it is one of only a few eliminable diseases according to WHO and therefore great strides can be made through partnership of international organizations with governments and NGOs. Local community health workers were trained about LF and went door-to-door to deliver the medicine. With very high participation rates, the attempt was largely successful. We researched the reasons why members of the target community in Aziza, Giza Governate, Egypt did and did not participate in the mass drug administration efforts on the part of the Egyptian government to eliminate the disease. With some guidance from a contact at the Ministry of Health, we were able to enter a community health center outside of Cairo and verbally question patients at the clinic about their experience with Lymphatic filariasis and Egypt's mass drug administration initiative of recent years. In the process, we were able to assess the preparation, education, and awareness of LF by the participants and therefore evaluate the overall effectiveness of the program. In the village in question, the pre-education programs that the Ministry of Health contact said were implemented were not apparent in the participant responses which suggests a probable reason for its maintenance of endemic status.
