LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh Health and Family Welfare Department is launching a mass drug administration drive from Thursday across 27 filaria endemic districts of the state, an official said.

Vector-borne diseases Additional Director, Bhanu Pratap Singh Kalyani, said filaria is an often-neglected tropical disease caused by the Culex mosquito.

"There is no treatment of the disease and a person is left to manage its implications all his life but preventive medicine can save them from falling prey to the disease," he added.

He said that in Auraiya, Bahraich, Balrampur, Basti, Deoria, Etawah, Farrukhabad, Ghazipur, Gonda, Gorakhpur, Kannauj, Kushinagar, Maharajganj, Rae Bareilly, Sant Kabir Nagar, Shravasti, Siddharth Nagar and Sultanpur health workers will administer two drugs, namely DEC and Albandazole, whereas in Chandauli, Fatehpur, Hardoi, Kanpur Dehat, Kanpur Nagar, Kaushambi, Kheri, Mirzapur, Sitapur and Hardoi, they will also administer Ivermectin with the two other drugs.

A rapid response team will be available in each block to assist anyone who faces difficulties.