Wednesday, 09 August 2023 | PNS | DEHRADUN
In a massive drive 38.36 lakh children between one to 19 years of age will be administered with anti-helminthic medicine on August 22 in all the 13 districts of the State. A meeting presided over by the additional secretary, Health and additional mission director of National Health Mission (NHM) Amandeep Kaur was held at NHM auditorium on Tuesday. In the meeting discussions on making the deworming drive successful were held. She said that the drive will be held on August 22 and a mop up day will be held on August 29 for the children left out on August 22.
She informed that Albendazole, the deworming medicine, will be administered to the children by trained teachers and Anganwadi workers. Kaur said that the deworming day is organised twice in a year by the government of India and the State government. She directed all the officers to ensure that the target of 100 per cent administration of Albandozole tablet is achieved. In the drive the children between the age of one to two years would be given half a tablet while children between age 2 to 19 years would be administered one tablet.
The helminthic worms are the cause of malnutrition and retarded growth in a large number of children. The helminths are the parasites that absorb nutrition from the body tissues and induce malnutrition which adversely affect growth of the body and apart from physical growth the worm also affects mental growth of the individual.
The medical experts are of the view that deworming helps in increasing attendance of students by upto 25 per cent in the schools. The helminthic infection occurs from defecating in the open, walking barefoot, keeping poor personal hygiene and eating infected food. The symptoms of the disease are retarded growth, anaemia, loss of appetite, stomach ache, vomiting and irregular bowel movements.
