Private schools to join Government deworming drive

BHUBANESWAR: The State Government has decided to include all private schools in the deworming campaign scheduled on National Deworming Day on September 19 and the subsequent mop-up round on September 26. As many as 1.42 crore children and adults in the age group of 1 to 19 will be administered Albendazole during the State level drive to prevent intestinal worm infections. A biannual Vitamin A supplementation programme will also be implemented during the period.

As per the ninth annual status of education report 2014, 29 per cent of total enrolments at the national level are in private schools. In Odisha, the percentage of private school admissions is 8.5. The drive will be conducted in 27 districts and aligned with mass drug administration in the rest three lymphatic districts of Cuttack, Khurda and Dhenkanal. Children from one to five years of age will be administered Albendazole suspension and those in the age bracket of six to 19 will be given tablet. Pre-school and school kids are at the risk of parasitic intestinal worm infections - Soil-Transmitted Helminths (STH). Worms can cause anaemia and nutritional impairment, thereby affecting mental and physical development.

As estimated by the national centre for disease control, the STH rate in Odisha is 38 per cent. Parasitic infections result from poor sanitation as well as unhygienic conditions and are easily transmitted to children through contact with infected soil. A health official said mass deworming leads to significant improvement in outcomes related to education, career choice, earnings and long-term well being. Since the consequences of chronic worm infection in children are widespread and debilitating and kids with high intensity of STH infection are too sick to concentrate in schools or Anganwadi centres, dewo r ming is an important intervention to combat malnutrition, he said. Sources said the deworming coverage was 92 per cent during the last round in April.

The Health department has chalked out strategies to reach out-of school children and private schools in urban areas to increase the coverage and achieve the census target. Meanwhile, the Project Director of Odisha Primary Education Programme Authority (OPEPA) has sought cooperation of all district education officers, project coordinators of Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) and block education officers to make the drive successful. They district officials have been urged to nominate one teacher from every school as nodal teacher for a training programme at block level.