| Increasing knowledge about the benefits of praziquantel |
Include education about praziquantel and schistosomiasis in drug distributor training |
| Prepare staff to address common questions, e.g. “Why should I take praziquantel when I don’t have symptoms?” |
| Use mass media campaigns (radio, TV, traveling road shows, posters, booklets, brochures) for education |
| Conduct education sessions in village meetings, places of worship, markets, and other places where people gather |
| Incorporate schistosomiasis/praziquantel education into school curricula |
| Reducing fear of side effects |
Provide snacks with MDA distribution |
| Schedule MDA when food is more plentiful (e.g. after a harvest) |
| Educate community members about the range and transient nature of potential side effects |
| Explain the link between worm burden and intensity of side effects and why side effects may thus be worse during the first round of treatment |
| Have drug distributors and prominent community members publicly take praziquantel to demonstrate its safety |
| Motivating and retaining drug distributors |
Increase distributor-to-recipient ratio to reduce workload |
| Provide small financial or material incentives |
| Avoid scheduling schistosomiasis MDA concurrently with other health programs that provide incentives |
| Avoid scheduling MDA during periods of the year with especially high agricultural or other demands |
| Achieving equal coverage in minority groups |
Involve all groups in the community in MDA scheduling and in distributor selection |
| Monitor drug distribution in process to guard against inequities in coverage |
