ISLAMABAD: Around 17 millions children from 45 districts of country were getting deworming treatment in a massive national campaign 2021 to prevent parasitic worms from infecting their mental development.
Parliamentary secretary for ministry of federal education and professional training Wajiha Qamar said, the program was initiated to check worm diseases, usually common among children, for both enrolled and out of school children aged five to 14 to ensure their health.
Talking to PTV she said the school-based deworming programme was launched in coordination with the Ministry of Planning, Development and Special Initiatives, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education.
The drive, which would continue till Sept 4, would cover both enrolled and out-of-school children, she informed.
They were focusing on basic hygiene issues as well as providing access to safe drinking-water which were key factors to resolve health and nutritional diseases caused by intestinal worms, Wajiha Qamar said.
Replying to a query, she said school-based deworming programme targeted 574, 000 children in approximately 2, 000 government and private schools as well as seminaries with in the vicinity of the federal capital.
She said approximately over 200, 000 schoolchildren have been successfully dewormed in the previous two rounds of annual mass deworming in the capital during 2019 and 2020.
“We launched community mobilization campaigns with an aim to encourage participation of both enrolled and non-enrolled children”, she said adding, trained teaching as well as health visitors were rendering services for the national campaign.
An awareness program through media was also organized to educate children and their parents about parasitic worm infections, she added.
The programme would be further extend so that deworming could help to improve health, nutrition level and overall cognitive development of children, she said.