Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) conducts deworming drive twice a year.
What is Deworming?
Deworming is a process to kill worms commonly tape, round and hook worm, that infest bodies of children below 18 years of age.
As per the guidelines, children aged below two years are given 200 gm of Albendazole tablet, a drug to treat parasitic worm infestation, and school-going children are administered 400 mg tablets.
The Albendazole tablet paralyses the muscles of these worms, the worm loses its grip of intestinal tract and is flushed out of the human body.
A worm takes six months to mature and start sucking, therefore the exercise is carried out biannually.
Deworming has no serious side effects, but it can cause nausea and vomiting if a child has worms.
The medicine disrupts the worms which leads to uneasiness in the stomach.
Why is the significance of deworming?
Parasitic worms and their larvae are generally found in contaminated food and water.
In slums children walk bare feet and they frequently contract worms.
The worm first enters the blood circulation system and its larvae land up in the larynx, from where it finally reaches the gastrointestinal tract.
The hook, round and tapeworm grow by sucking blood from its host in this case the human body.
Loss of blood leads to a drop in haemoglobin level and causes anaemia, thus deworming kills these worms and helps prevent anaemia.
The National Family Health Survey-3 data suggests anaemia is widely prevalent in all age groups.
Its prevalence is 56 per cent among adolescent girls (aged 15-19) and 70 per cent among children below five years.
What are the other initiatives of government in this regard?
Under the National Iron Plus Initiative Union Health Ministry is providing weekly dose of iron and folic acid tablets to children aged 1-18 years.
This is to prevent iron deficiency and chances of anaemia.
Various municipal schools in India conduct this drive by giving a weekly dose of 100 mg iron and 500 mg folic acid to adolescents (10-19 years), dosage varies for different age groups.
