DOH starts campaign to deworm 16M pupils

Healthy schoolchildren are active and intelligent, and the Department of Health (DOH) wants all Filipino school kids to be that way—by keeping them free from parasites through a deworming program worthy of a Guinness World Record.

On Wednesday, the DOH launched “Oplan Goodbye Bulate (Worm),” a program designed to deworm 16 million public elementary school students twice a year.

The campaign against parasites was launched at Mandaluyong Elementary School, in the first National School Deworming Day that was replicated in schools across the country.

“This program has been there for a long time, but we are just improving it by putting up a system,” Health Secretary Janette Garin said at a press briefing after the launch of the campaign.

Starting this year, Garin said, all children enrolled in public elementary schools will be given candy-flavored, chewable deworming tablets to free them from soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH), or infections from intestinal worms.

STH infections cause poor physical growth and intellectual development in children and can also cause anemia and malnutrition even among women of childbearing age if left untreated, Garin said.

“The mass deworming will be done twice a year. Our main objective here is to eventually eliminate the source of STH infections,” she said.

STH infections are transmitted by eggs present in human feces, which in turn contaminate soil in areas where water, sanitation and hygiene are poor.

No immunity

Health Undersecretary Vicente Belizario said there was no immunity from these parasites and that the threat of infection would be there as long as problems with water, sanitation and hygiene in the communities remained.

DOH records show that the highest intensity of infection occurs among children aged 1 to 12. Children aged 1 to 4 suffer the greatest morbidity, while children aged 5 to 12 harbor the greatest load of infection.

The National Parasite Survey conducted by the Research Institute for Tropical Medicine in 2013 showed a significant decrease in STH prevalence after several years of deworming children.

According to partial results of the study, the prevalence rate of STH infections among children 6 to 14 years old recorded two years ago was 12 to 38 percent compared with 65 percent in 2003.

In the Ilocos region, Dr. Myrna Cabotaje, DOH regional director, said STH infections remain high due to improper hygiene and shortage of toilets and water in schools.

Cabotaje could not cite figures, but said information reaching her office indicated the number of infections was going up.

Blood suckers

Children afflicted with STH are restless, lack focus and have poor appetite.

“The worms suck blood, leading to anemia. That’s why children become sleepy and their school performance is affected,” Cabotaje said.

At her news conference, Garin said the DOH’s old deworming program was not comprehensive and was initially limited to the poorest students.

When it did not yield the desired outcome, the program was transferred to the health centers, where deworming tablets were administered to children who were brought in by their mothers, Garin said.

“So now, we are making it school-based so that the coverage is bigger,” she said.

Biggest in the world

The World Health Organization (WHO) country representative, Julie Hall, on Wednesday commended the government for initiating a “systematic” deworming program, saying it was the most cost-effective intervention in dealing with common forms of poor nutrition, loss of appetite and energy among children.

“If it is able to achieve 16 million children, which is its target, it will be the biggest deworming campaign in the world,” Hall said.

Also on Wednesday, the DOH in Western Mindanao and local authorities denied that at least 10 children died after deworming in Dumingag, Zamboanga del Sur province.

Dr. Joshua Brillantes, chief of the local health support division of DOH-Western Mindanao, said the report about the supposed death of the children had reached his office, but “when we had it checked by our health personnel there, it turned out to be false information.”

Brillantes said the report came from a radio station in Pagadian City.

Dumingag Mayor Nacianceno Pacalioga said he sent his staff to verify the report “and we found out it’s not true.”

“We are meeting right now to trace where the report came from,” Pacalioga told the Inquirer by phone. With reports from Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon, and Julie S. Alipala, Inquirer Mindanao