Representatives from the Lapu-Lapu City government, the Department of Health and Parents-Teachers Association distribute deworming tablets to the daycare children from Barangay Ibo.
CDN PHOTO/NORMAN MENDOZA
About 15,000 daycare children in Lapu-Lapu City will benefit from the deworming program that will be jointly implemented by Mactan-Cebu International Airport Authority (MCIAA), the Lapu-Lapu City government and the Department of Health (DOH).
The program will be piloted in areas near the airport, such as Barangays Pusok, Ibo, Buaya, Bankal and Basak, where a total of 1,535 daycare children are targeted to benefit.
The launching of “War on Worms” was held yesterday at Barangay Ibo gymnasium, where around 100 daycare children were given deworming tablets.
“This is part of our corporate social responsibility to the community and we have partnered with the LGU of Lapu-Lapu City and the Department of Health (DOH) to help achieve higher percentage of dewormed kids,” MCIAA general manager Steve Dicdican said.
He said their role in the deworming project is to coordinate with the LGU and the beneficiary schools.
Dr. Vicente Belizario, a professor from the Department of Parasitology and College of Public Health, University of the Philippines Manila, said in a speech that children 1 to 8 years old are prone to develop worms due to exposure to soil and areas where an open defecation is present.
“Children should also develop the habit of handwashing before eating because worms may come back after three months,” said Belizario.
He added that they are targeting to deworm around 85 percent of children nationwide, which is above the 65 percent of children dewormed in the previous year as shown in the statistics of DOH.
Aside from the deworming project, the stakeholders also plan to launch oral health to all daycare children.
Dr. Patrick Alajas of the DOH-7 explained that they have been doing the deworming for around a decade already and yet there are still misconceptions that the deworming treatment has side effects.
He said the deworming drugs that will be given for free to around 30 million daycare children nationwide are of high quality and therefore safe for consumption.
The deworming for children 1 to 2 years old will be taken cared of by the health center, while those for children 5 to 8 years old will be done in public schools.