lakhs of students were administered deworming tablet, Albendazole on National De worming day on Friday.
Terming the drive a successful one, the director general ( DG) health services, Dr T C Pant said that by 4 pm on the day, 70 percent of the targeted children were administered Albendazole. He claimed that no case of children falling ill after intake of the tablet was reported on the day.
The department had targeted 40.50 lakh students of all the schools and Anganwadi centres for de-worming exercise. The 24056 teachers of the Government schools, 19807 Anganwadi workers and AHSHAs participated in the mega drive on the day.
To cover the left-out children due to absenteeism and illness, a mop-up drive would be held on August 17.
Under the campaign children between the ages I–2 were given half tablet while children between age 2 to 19 were administered full tablet of Albendazole. The doctors term Albendazole as a safe drug which helps in effective deworming.
In Middle Himalayan regions of Uttarakhand the percentage of helminth infection is found to be as high as 30 percent among children. The helminth are the parasites that absorb nutrition from the body tissues and induce malnutrition which adversely affect growth of body.
Apart from physical growth the worm also affects mental growth of the individual.