abundance of the target diseases, to enable optimizing both the targeting of suitable interventions and the use of available resources \[[@B22]\]. Currently, however, there is little evidence on the feasibility of integrated survey designs \[[@B23]\].

Burkina Faso has a tropical climate with two very distinct seasons: the rainy season with between 600 and 900 mm of rainfall, and the dry season during which the Harmattan, a hot dry wind from the Sahara, blows. The rainy season lasts approximately four months, May/June to September, and is shorter in the northern part of the country. Four large agro-climatic regions can be defined, characterized by a strong south-north decreasing gradient of average annual rainfall. The Sahel in the north receives less than 500 mm rainfall a year and exhibits high temperatures \[[@B24]\].

Althoughinitially control programmes for schistosomiasis, trachoma, LF, onchocerciasis and the STHs operated autonomously, the Burkina Faso NTD Control Program has recently taken a phased approach to integrated MDA. For instance, Burkina Faso was under the umbrella of the Onchocerciasis Control Programme in West Africa until 2002 and community-directed treatment with ivermectin (CDTI) is the mainstay of control in areas where the infection was not eliminated. For the case of schistosomiasis and trachoma, in 2007 drugs were distributed for these two infections and STHs as an integrated package in three target districts (Tenkodogo, Koupela and Bogandé) and in 2008 these efforts were scaled up to include the LF and onchocerciasis programmes as a platform for becoming a fully integrated MDA campaign on a national level. At the time these