What is Mass Drug Administration?

Helping-hands Foundation works with thousands of local volunteers to distribute millions of donated treatments and protect people from disease.

Mass drug administration (MDA) involves giving treatment to an entire population or every person in a geographical area. This means that all eligible people, whether they are infected or not, receive the treatment.

MDAs are vital to help control and eliminate Neglected Tropical Diseases(NTDs). They ensure that those who are infected are treated, and that those who aren’t are protected from future infection.

Since 2016, more than a billion people a year have been treated via MDA. Here you can read about the key steps to a successful MDA.

1. Identify where treatment is needed
Helping-hands Foundation works with countries to identify where treatment is needed using mapping surveys. Examples include the Tropical Data project, which helps countries carry out surveys as they work towards eliminating trachoma; and the Onchocerciasis Elimination Mapping Project, to map the spread of river blindness.

Both use smartphone technology to collect data to pinpoint exactly where programmes are needed.

2. Raise awareness in communities
Mobilisers go out to the communities where treatment is needed to raise awareness of the disease and treatment process. Then, planning meetings are held to clearly lay out the roles and responsibilities of everyone involved.

Information about the disease and planned MDA is often then shared with those who need the treatment via community gatherings at local churches or schools.

3. Train volunteers to give treatments
Local volunteers are nominated by their communities: many have experienced how NTDs affect lives and understand their community’s customs. They are taught about the diseases, and are trained to distribute the treatment.

This community-focused approach means the communities themselves are at the centre of efforts to combat NTDs, ensuring long-term and sustainable solutions.

4. Ship treatments to the communities
Treatments for the five NTDs that Helping-hands Foundation treat are generously donated by pharmaceutical companies including Pfizer, Merck & Co, GlaxoSmithKline, Merck Serono and Johnson & Johnson.

They are shipped to the countries where they are needed, then distributed to the local communities where the MDA will be carried out.