The Ghana Health Service has announced that 89 districts across the nation will deworm a total of 1,943,023 school-aged children.
The deworming campaign, which kicked off on November 21, 2022, will target students in 11,322 schools in an effort to improve their health, reduce absenteeism, and raise academic achievement at the foundational level.
In addition to school-aged children being the age group most at risk for parasitic infections, Dr. Anthony Adofo Ofosu, the Deputy Director-General of the Ghana Health Service, said the exercise was important because it is the most economical way to provide regular deworming medications to children on a large scale.
With the aid of neighborhood health professionals, teachers would be in charge of giving the deworming medications to school-age children at their individual schools, he said.
The Ghana Education Service (GES) and the GHS are working together on the exercise, which has the goal of “Achieving Health Equity to End Schistosomiasis,” and it is scheduled to end on December 9th, 2022.
Because Ahafo Region only had category B schools, it was stated that only districts in category A, with a 50% prevalence, and category C, with a 10% prevalence, were targeted for treatment this year.
To rid a susceptible human population of helminth parasites as schistosomes, round worms, tape worms, etc., deworming entails administering anthelminthic medications.
More than 1.5 billion individuals, or over one in four of the world’s population, are thought to have intestinal worm infections, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and more than 880 million of these youngsters need treatment.
“Infested water bodies or soil contaminated with faecal matter resulting in schistosomiasis or soil helminthiaeses infection and have its highest prevalence in school-age children, which is 5-14 years,” is how these infections were acquired.
The Deputy Director-General emphasized that under the tight supervision of instructors and medical personnel, Praziquantel (600 mg) and Albendazole (400 mg) dosages will be given to each kid according to height.
In order to ensure that all children have eaten, he continued, medications should ideally be given right after the first lunch break or after the children have had food from the feeding program.
Dr. Ofosu urged guardians, parents, and other adults to make sure their kids eat before heading to school.
In order to increase coverage and assist in ridding Ghana of parasitic illnesses, he also urged schools (both public and private), parents, and other community members to work together, collaborate, and support the deworming exercise at the selected districts and schools.
He reaffirmed that the pills were secure for usage and caused little to no discomfort, and he added that each institution was connected to a medical center that would handle any negative side effects without charging for them.
Additionally, he said that the COVID-19 protocols would be followed when administering medication.
The Director In-Charge of School Health Education of GES, Mrs. Theresa Oppong Mensah, promised to work closely with the GHS to control and eradicate schistosomiasis and soil transmitted helminthiases in schools across the nation.
She reaffirmed that parental and guardian permission had been sought before deworming their children and urged the media to help with ongoing outreach.
Mrs. Mensah appealed for everyone’s help because worm infestations have numerous negative repercussions on one’s health.
Source: newsthemegh.com