Figure 1.

Treatment outcomes for individuals in 17 study villages. The distribution of praziquantel (PZQ), albendazole (ALB), and ivermectin (IVM) is provided for individuals aged one year and older. During mass drug administration, community medicine distributors informed 815 participants of ineligibility due to severe illness, pregnancy status (first trimester for IVM), or age (under five years for PZQ). No response was available for individuals where treatment offer was unknown. Stage 1 and 2 represent the sequence of actions for drug distribution. Individuals provided one or more reasons for noncompliance. For the lack of health education, individuals stated that they did not know the benefit and purpose of the drugs (71.32%, 470/659), did not need to take the drug because they had no symptoms (25.95%, 171/659), believed the drugs did not work (2.12%, 14/659), and witchcraft caused infections (1.67%, 11/659). Only 27.04% (258/954) of noncompliers deliberately refused treatment, despite knowledge of the drug benefits. Their responses noted bad side effects (66.28%, 171/258), lack of food or drink to accompany treatment (27.52%, 71/258), repurposing treatment for livestock (3.49%, 9/258), few friends and neighbors accepting treatment (3.49%, 9/258), and clan and tribe differences with the drug distributor (1.50%, 4/258). Only 3.88% (37/954) of individuals did not comply with treatment because of both the lack of health education and reasons of deliberate refusal.