CALABAR (SUNDIATA POST)- No fewer than 886,292 children have been targeted for the 2024 school deworming exercise by the Cross River state government, in collaboration with a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Evidence Action.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), reports that the annual comprehensive state-wide, school-based deworming exercise would be carried out by the Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD) Unit of the state Ministry of Health, in conjunction with the NGO.
NAN also reports that the exercise would be implemented by NTD, in partnership with the state Ministry of Education, State Universal Basic Education Board and the State Primary Healthcare Development Agency.
NAN further reports that the exercise which commences on Wednesday, ends next Tuesday.
No fewer than 623,828 school-aged children are also targeted to receive Mebendazole tablets for the preventive treatment of soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH) and another 173,000 for schistosomiasis (SCH)
Similarly, some 1,000 trained health workers are expected to administer the tablets in 2,000 schools across 14 local government areas (LGAs) in the state.
Briefing journalists on the exercise on Wednesday in Calabar, Mrs Veronica Mark, Cross River’s NTD Coordinator, said the exercise was to treat STH and SCH that were common in children.
Mark said that the infections, known as intestinal worm, result from poor sanitation and hygiene conditions, tend to have the highest prevalence in school- aged children.
According to her, the infection can lead to anemia, malnourishment and impaired mental and physical development, ultimately affecting children’s educational outcomes and income as adults if left untreated.
“These worms disproportionately affect the poor who are less able to afford the costs of diagnosis and treatment.
“It also will potentially increase the inequality gap that currently exists and derail the country’s development goal of equitable access to health and education,” he said.
Similarly, Mr Toochi Ohaji, Senior Manager, Evidence Action, Nigeria, said treating at-risk children through schools was an evidence-based, cost-effective solution.
Ohaji maintained that Evidence Action was a partner fighting neglected tropical diseases in Cross River and had been providing technical assistance in planning, capacity building and logistics.
“We also partner in data collection and reporting, community mobilisation, monitoring and supervision of the school deworming programmes for STH and SCH,” he said
Meanwhile, available data showed that globally, more than 1 billion children are at risk of intestinal worm infections, while in Nigeria, more than 48 million school-aged children require treatment of STH infections and 16.6 others, treatment for SCH. (NAN)
