Bhubaneswar: To combat the threat of intestinal worm among children, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Govt of Odisha will conduct state-wide deworming of children on August 12. A deworming mop up round will be held on August 19 for those children who miss their dose on August 12.
Addressing a press conference in Bhubaneswar on Wednesday, officials from the Directorate of Family Welfare along with UNICEF spoke on the importance of deworming and importance of awareness among parents and caregivers to ensure their children remain free of worms. The Directorate of Family Welfare shall implement National Deworming Day (NDD) along with Vitamin A supplementation programme for all children in the month of August 2022.
The prime objective of NDD is to deworm all children between the ages of 1-19 years biannually through the platform of schools and anganwadi centres in order to improve their overall health, nutritional status, access to education and quality of life. The NDD is conducted biannually that is once in the month of February and in August.
Addressing the media, Family Welfare Director Dr Bijay Kumar Panigrahy said, “This year the National Deworming day will be held on 12th August. The prime objective of the initiative is to deworm every child. Children aged between 1 to 19 years will be administered deworming tablets – Albendazole through Schools and Anganwadi centers. Through this initiative we can prevent diseases like anemia and malnutrition which will help children to stay healthy and enhance their attendance in school which will lead to a healthy society in future.”
“Presently there are 1,68,31,679 beneficiaries of the NDD across the state which will take place in 55,500 schools and 72,000 anganwadi centers with the help of 69,000 teachers, 7800 ANM, 72,000 Anganwadi Workers and 48,000 Asha Workers. The tablets and syrup Albendazole has no side effects and are absolutely safe for children. Ensure the doses are administered under the supervision of teachers or Anganwadi workers” he further added.
All schools including both Government and Private and anganwadi centres will be the implementation sites of the NDD in all 30 districts. Under the Vitamin A supplementation (VAS) programme, the children aged 9 months to 60 months will be administered with age appropriate dose of vitamin A solution at Routine Immunization sites and Special VHSNDs during the month of August 2022. The beneficiaries of Vitamin A Supplementation in the state are 35,19,554 for 9– 60 months.
As per information, the state government is all set with adequate stock of drugs for both NDD and VAS programme in all 30 districts. The drugs include Albendazole suspension for 1-5 years children, Albendazole tablet for 6-19 years of children and Vitamin A paediatric solution.
Speaking on hygiene and safety measures during NDD, UNICEF Odisha Nutrition Specialist Sourav Bhattacharjee said, “To prevent the worm infection among the children in the current scenario of covid pandemic, all the protocol of the COVID 19 like hand sanitization, masking and social distancing should be followed during the NDD Observation.”
Thanking media Joint Director, Nutrition Dr Smrutijit Patnaik said, “Thanks to all the media person for their role in disseminating the message in the society and UNICEF for their support. I appeal all parents, caregivers and service providers to take part in the observation of NDD on August 12th as well as on the mop up day, August19 th to make the initiative successful.”
NDD will be implemented with support from Department of School and Mass Education, Department of Women and Child Development, Department of ST & SC Development and development partners.
