THE Department of Health in the Central Visayas (DOH-7) has started its campaign to deworm all the schoolchildren in the region yesterday.
This is in line with the celebration of Deworming of School Children Month.
The campaign is targeting to deworm a total of 3,193,575 schoolchildren around the region. This will be done twice a year.
Out of the target population, the DOH-7 revealed that 1,123,349 schoolchildren had already been given deworming tablets with the latest deworming session conducted on January 2017.
“We’ve been doing this since 2006 and until now, we do it twice yearly,” Dr. Al Patrick Alajas said during the Kapihan sa PIA (Public Information Agency) forum.
“Before the implementation of deworming activities, ang national prevalence is 67 percent, mao ni siya ang gidaghanon sa mga children nga naay bulati (Before the implementation of deworming activities, the national prevalence is 67 percent, which is the number of children acquiring intestinal worms),” he added.
The DOH-7 said that by 2020, the target number of children with intestinal worms in their body will be less than 20 percent.
“Duol na kaayo ta (We are almost there),” Alajas said.
According to their records, parasites target children since they are vulnerable and constantly exposed to the environment.
“Once affected ang ilang pagdevelop, poor ang ilang performance sa school (Once their development is affected, their performance is low in school),” he said.
Parasites can enter into the body through food or constant contact of feet to the soil.
In fact, Alajas reported that there are other entrances into the body like the lungs. These parasites are blood suckers leading to anemia and compete with the nutrients that could have been beneficial to the child’s body.
“Worst case scenario is it can lead to death if daghan na kaayo ang bulati sa lawas (there are a lot of parasites in the body),” the doctor added.
This is the reason why DOH highly encouraged the parents to submit their children to deworming activities, Alajas said.
“It is safe. It is effective and most of all, it is free,” said Alajas.