Hoshiarpur: On the orders of the Health Department Punjab and as per the directions of Civil Surgeon Hoshiarpur Dr. Pawan Kumar Shagotra and under the leadership of District Vaccination Officer Dr. Seema Garg, "National Deworming Day" was celebrated today in government schools and Anganwadi centers across the district. At the district level, this day was started from Government Senior Secondary School Railway Mandi. Where after lunch, Albendazole tablets were administered to the children to kill the worms. AMO Dr. Mandeep Kaur and AMO Dr. Vivek Kumar of RBSK and Deputy Mass Media Officer Dr. Tripta Devi and Mass Media Officer Ramandeep Kaur from Mass Media Wing were present on behalf of the Health Department. Additional Director Dr. Manju Bansal was specially present from the State Headquarters to inspect this campaign. Dr. Manju Bansal, while addressing the students, said that children between the ages of 01 and 19 are more prone to stomach worms.
This disease causes deficiencies like loss of appetite, malnutrition and anemia, hindrance in overall mental and physical development, fatigue due to anemia, lack of interest in studies, etc. To prevent these, this medicine is being given to children, which will give them relief from stomach worms. It is necessary to give this pill to children after mid-day meal in schools under the supervision of teachers and Anganwadi workers in Anganwadi centers. He said that children who are deprived of taking medicine today due to any reason, will be given medicine again on Mop-up Day on 5 December 2024.
Dr. Mandeep Kaur said that Albendazole tablets provide two types of benefits, firstly direct benefits such as prevention of anemia, increased digestibility of nutritious food, improvement in the body's ability to take food and digestion and secondly indirect benefits such as increased physical strength, improvement in learning and attention span and reduction in the spread of stomach worms in the society. She said that this tablet has no side effects and is completely safe for children and adults.
On this occasion, Deputy Mass Media Officer Dr. Tripta Devi asked the children to pay attention to other important things besides taking medicine for prevention and control of stomach worms. Such as keeping the nails of the hands clean and short, keeping the food and drink items covered, maintaining cleanliness in the surroundings, washing hands with soap before eating and after going to the toilet, wearing shoes, not walking barefoot, drinking clean water, washing fruits and vegetables in clean water, always using toilets instead of open spaces for defecation, etc.
He said that we can avoid stomach worm disease to a large extent by keeping ourselves and our surroundings clean. During this, the children were also made aware about the correct method of washing hands.