The State will join the nationwide campaign for deworming children. Informing this, Principal Secretary of Health department Nidhi Khare today said that the campaign is one of the biggest in the world run twice in a year.
Talking to media persons here on Wednesday, Khare said that during the drive children in the age group of one to 19 years will be administered Albendazole tablets between August 10 and 17.
Khare said that around 1.38 crore kids will be given dosage of deworming medicine in the State. She said that schools, anganwadi centres, Navodaya schools, Kasturba Gandhi Schools, Kendriya Vidylayas and technical institutions will be covered under the campaign to have maximum impact of the drive.
“Those who could not be covered during the drive would be given special attention during a mop-up drive on 17 August. It has been found in studies that 24 per cent of world’s population is infected with worms, where the number of infected kids is more in East Asian countries,” she said.
“In India about 24 crore children are affected due to worms, which cause malnutrition among kids. And, resultantly it affects the studies, physical and mental growth of the kids,” she added.
Khare informed that seven departments are coordinating in the programme that has begun in the year 2015. All preparations have been done to face any untoward incident, she said.
Talking about Dengue and Chikungunya Khare asked people not to keep anything near their houses where water gets collected. She said that by keeping houses and localities clean people can save them from infections. She said that the hospitals of the State are ready to provide any kind of infections.
Director, Health Services, Dr Rajendra Paswan; Nodal Officer, Dr Veena Sinha, Dr Ajeet Prasad, Dr Pushpa Mariya Beck; IPRD Director, Rl Gupta; Civil Surgeon, Ranchi, Dr VB Prasad and NHM officials were present on the occasion.