Five districts in Kerala will be included in a monitoring and epidemiological assessment conducted as part of the World Health Organisaton (WHO)'s global programme to eliminate lymphatic filariasis. The study is being conducted in Ernakulam, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Kollam and Thrissur districts. The study is aimed to check the efficacy of the mass drug administration (MDA) programme in practice. Blood samples will be collected from the inhabitants to derive required results. Under the MDA programme, anti-filarial drugs (DEC+Albendazole) is supplied as preventive medicine for five years in areas with heavy prevalence, to people excluding children below two years, pregnant women and patients with other chronic ailments. With hardly any new cases detected in the districts marked as high prevalence areas, a transmission assessment survey (TAS) will be done to decide whether the MDA supply can be stopped. “The study is in its preparatory stage of providing training programmes for the personnel. The staff and people need to be sensitized before we begin the TAS,“ said Dr A S Pradeepkumar, additional director of health services (ADHS). “We have finished taking blood samples from different pockets of the vulnerable areas and have not found any new cases. So the TAS will help us declare Ernakulam as a filariasis-free district,“ said senior biologist T K Haridas with the district health department. The TAS study is more relevant in the backdrop of World Health Organisation's goal of declaring 2015 as target year for filariasis elimination on a global scale.