J’KHAND TO MAKE CHILDREN WORM-FREE BY 2020

DHANBAD: One of the major child health programmes undertaken in the state is deworming of children, and the state health department expects to achieve 100% success by 2020.

Principal secretary (health) Nitin Madan Kulkarni held a meeting regarding this with state health officials on Friday, at Nepal House in the state capital.

At present, the deworming success rate in Jharkhand is 42%. Around India, around 24.1 crore children are afflicted by this complication every year. (According to the National Health Service, UK, worm infections can cause children to lose weight, make them suffer from persistent diarrhoea, and lead to skin rash.)

Following the meeting on Friday, Dr Ajit Prasad, state nodal officer of maternal health, said, “The health department has targeted 1.42 lakh children — aged one year to 19 years — in 23 districts, except Simdega, for administering deworming medicines.”

National Deworming Day would be observed in Jharkhand for two days early next year — on February 4 and February 14 — to bolster the mission. The reason Simdega is excluded from the Deworming Day programme is that the district has already fixed January 10 as the date when all the targeted children would be given albendazole (antiworm) pills.

Last year, the state health department had targeted 1.37 crore children, but only 1.17 crore were administered deworming tablets. “This time, the health department has made all anganwadi centres, schools, and colleges [a part of deworming campaign venues] to cover the targeted number of children,” said Dr Prasad.

The health department being short of manpower, the campaign is being supported by members of Swachh Bharat Abhiyan, Madarsa Board, Municipal Corporation, Bharat Scouts and Guides, National Cadet Corps, Nehru Yuva Kendra, and a few other organisations.