Healthy schoolchildren are active and intelligent, and the Department of Health (DOH) wants all Filipino school kids to be that way—by keeping them free from parasites through a deworming program worthy of a Guinness World Record.
On Wednesday, the DOH launched “Oplan Goodbye Bulate (Worm),” a program designed to deworm 16 million public elementary school students twice a year.
The campaign against parasites was launched at Mandaluyong Elementary School, in the first National School Deworming Day that was replicated in schools across the country.
ADVERTISEMENT“This program has been there for a long time, but we are just improving it by putting up a system,” Health Secretary Janette Garin said at a press briefing after the launch of the campaign.
Starting this year, Garin said, all children enrolled in public elementary schools will be given candy-flavored, chewable deworming tablets to free them from soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH), or infections from intestinal worms.
STH infections cause poor physical growth and intellectual development in children and can also cause anemia and malnutrition even among women of childbearing age if left untreated, Garin said.
“The mass deworming will be done twice a year. Our main objective here is to eventually eliminate the source of STH infections,” she said.
STH infections are transmitted by eggs present in human feces, which in turn contaminate soil in areas where water, sanitation and hygiene are poor.
Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/709000/doh-starts-campaign-to-deworm-16m-pupils#ixzz3qgJYk4qo
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On Wednesday, the DOH launched “Oplan Goodbye Bulate (Worm),” a program designed to deworm 16 million public elementary school students twice a year.
The campaign against parasites was launched at Mandaluyong Elementary School, in the first National School Deworming Day that was replicated in schools across the country.
ADVERTISEMENT“This program has been there for a long time, but we are just improving it by putting up a system,” Health Secretary Janette Garin said at a press briefing after the launch of the campaign.
Starting this year, Garin said, all children enrolled in public elementary schools will be given candy-flavored, chewable deworming tablets to free them from soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH), or infections from intestinal worms.
STH infections cause poor physical growth and intellectual development in children and can also cause anemia and malnutrition even among women of childbearing age if left untreated, Garin said.
“The mass deworming will be done twice a year. Our main objective here is to eventually eliminate the source of STH infections,” she said.
STH infections are transmitted by eggs present in human feces, which in turn contaminate soil in areas where water, sanitation and hygiene are poor.
Read more: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/709000/doh-starts-campaign-to-deworm-16m-pupils#ixzz3qgJYk4qo
Follow us: @inquirerdotnet on Twitter | inquirerdotnet on Facebook