Free
deworming to schoolchildren slated Jan. 27
By Claro A. Lanipa
PAGADIAN CITY, Jan. 22 (PIA) – The
Department of Health (DOH) in cooperation with the Department of Education
(DepEd) will administer free deworming to all schoolchildren from kindergarten to grade 6 with ages 5 to 12
years old in all public schools in the country come Jan. 27.
In a recent media forum here, Dr. Meriam
Indin, regional health coordinator of DepEd-9 said the conduct of the National
School Deworming Day (NSDD) aims to reduce cases of children affected with
worms locally known as “bulate” which causes weakness, loss of appetite,
decrease in IQ and anemia among children.
Dr. Indin disclosed that abendazole 400mg
is the drug of choice of DOH for the deworming, because it has a wide range of
curative activity and is effective against all worms, it is safe and easy to
administer and even was recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO).
If in case there is an adverse reaction on
children after taking the drug, the DOH has recommended that referrals must
only be done in government hospitals.
“In Zamboanga del Sur the hospitals
identified are the Margosatubig Regional Hospital in Margosatubig and the
Zamboanga del Sur Medical Center at Dao, this city,” Indin pointed out.
All Rural Health Units (RHUs) in every
municipalities and cities were also coordinated and oriented about the activity
and are ready to assist, she added.
Indin emphasized, “that the deworming
will be administered to a child only
after two hours of full meal.” With this note, she encouraged all parents that
on Jan. 27, their children should have a full meal before going to school.
To ensure that the children will have a
full stomach, DepEd will provide feeding prior to the deworming activity, while
DOH will augment some snacks for the children on the same day.
Meanwhile, Dr. Indin reported that in
Zamboanga Peninsula there are 1,169 public elementary schools that will be
dewormed on the said date, 657 of them are from the Zamboanga del Sur division.
