National deworm project launched in capital

Islamabad : The teams of Islamabad Capital Territory Health Department and Metropolitan Corporation Islamabad would carry out field activities for deworming children from the age of five years to fifteen years in all schools of the federal capital today (Thursday) under the National Deworm Project.

In a simple ceremony, the De worm Launch event was organised here at Islamabad Model College for Girls in F-7/4 on Wednesday. The objective of the activity on Thursday, termed as National Deworm Day is to get children rid of soil transmitted helminth infections including intestinal worms.

The Deworm project was designed after a World Health Organization survey according to which some districts in Pakistan were found having significantly a high percentage of children infested with worms while the maximum percentage was found in child population in Islamabad and Muzaffarabad as up to 20 per cent children were found infested with worms, said District Health Officer Islamabad Dr. Muhammad Najeeb Durrani while talking to ‘The News’ on Wednesday.

He said the infestation leads to poor growth among children making them malnourished having anaemia and weakness while also causing low Intelligence Quotient among children. District Health Office in collaboration with Planning Division worked day and night to work out the project, he said.

He added the National De worm project has been launched starting from District Islamabad. The responsibility of planning the project was given to ICT Health Department and MCI by the Planning Division while Ministry of National Health Services, Chief Commissioner Islamabad and WHO are joint stake holders.

After a number of meetings in last six months at the Planning Division for developing the methodology, the national De worm day was fixed at 31st January 2019. First it will be for School going children and later the day will be observed for out of school children, said Dr. Durrani.

He said that from the very beginning, it was decided that the District Polio Control Cell will be the focal point and all officers including medical officers and union council incharges of ICT and MCI will be responsible to work exclusively for the one day's campaign in Islamabad.

Since it is a high priority government project and many ministries and divisions are involved in it besides WHO, therefore all the relevant staff has been directed to work with zeal and spirit, he said. He explained that in the next step, out of school children will be given De worm tablets for which date will be announced later after consultation with stake holders. As a matter of fact this activity needs to be repeated once a year for permanent control, he said.