By Our Staff Reporter
Dehradun, 1 Jan: Uttarakhand is rapidly emerging from the challenge of soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infection in children, and effective results are being seen. The report of the joint survey conducted by the Health Department and ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology (ICMR-NIE) in the year 2022 found that the prevalence of worm infection among school children in the state has decreased from 67.97 percent to 0.17 percent as compared to the baseline prevalence survey of the Government of India, which is a big achievement for the state. Continuous campaigns are being run by the state government to keep children healthy and away from worm diseases. Under these campaigns, about 35 lakh children have been given deworming medicines this year.
State Medical Health and Medical Education Minister Dr Dhan Singh Rawat said in a statement issued to the media that, to protect children in the state from infection with worm diseases, the Health Department has launched a comprehensive campaign by visiting Anganwadi centres, schools, PHCs and door to door. As a result, there has been a significant reduction in the spread of soil transmitted parasitic worms among children. Dr Rawat said that the National Health Mission, Uttarakhand, and the Health Department, in collaboration with ICMR-National Institute of Epidemiology, conducted a statewide follow-up survey of soil transmitted worm prevalence in September 2022 to find out the spread of worm infection in the state. A tremendous decline was found in the spread of worm infection. He said that according to the baseline prevalence survey conducted by the Government of India in the year 2016, the prevalence rate of worm infection among the school children of the state was 67.97 percent, which has now come down to 0.17 percent. The departmental minister said that as part of the deworming follow-up survey, the Health Department surveyed 91.5 percent of the houses in the state, in which 93.8 percent families said that their children use toilets for defecation. In the survey, 96.1 percent children spoke about washing hands after defecation, out of which 96 percent children used soap to do so. Dr Rawat said that, since 2016 till now, 15 bi-annual phases of National Deworming Day have been successfully completed in the state. This year, under the National Deworming Day campaign, 35 lakh children in the age group of 1-19 have been given deworming medicines. He said that now the target of deworming in the state has been increased to 38 lakhs so that a healthy Uttarakhand can be created by feeding 100 percent of the children in the state deworming medicines and making them dewormed.
