The NTD Control programme gets ready for its annual mass drug administration

In June 2009, the Burundian NTD Control programme organised refresher training sessions for all the actors of the 2009 mass drug administration campaign.

MDA campaigns cannot be a success without the buy-in of the general population. This is why it is absolutely vital to mobilise the population before each campaign so that the affected individuals understand why they should be treated.

A week before the June 2009 MDA campaign, regional, district and local authorities, religious leaders and health and education staff were trained all around the country to help in mobilising the population for the next MDA. The participants were given information on neglected tropical diseases to be divulgated to the population. They also received some material to help propagating this information in the most efficient way.

During the same week, the teachers and health agents who will be responsible for distributing the drugs in school and in the health centres also received a refresher training on how to do so.

Each training session was organised so to be as participative as possible in order to ensure that all the participants could ask any question they had and would leave with all the information needed.