Why in News?
Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is all geared up for its 2nd round of National Deworming Day (NDD) 2017 on 10thAugust in 33 States/UTs followed by mop-up activities on 17th August targeting 31 crore children.
About the Program
- The NDD program has been launched in 2015 as WHO estimates that 220 million children below 14 years of age are at risk of STH infections in India.
- National Deworming Day is organised twice in a year covering all the children from 1-19 years of age except the States of Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh where deworming is carried out once in a year.
- The Soil Transmitted Helminths (STH) prevalence in these two States is less than 20%.
- All the children are provided deworming tablet in schools and anganwadis.
- The deworming has the potential to improve nutritional status of children.
- The deworming tablet called ‘Albendazole’ is a safe and efficacious drug for controlling worm infestation.
This is one of the largest public health programs reaching large number of children during a short period. The first NDD round of 2017 implemented in February covered 26 crore children with a coverage of 89%
Source : The Hindu
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