Today is National Deworming Day

The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is organizing the National Deworming Day at a high stake. 27 crore children all over India wee expected to be covered under the deworming process by the ministry. These children will be given a dosage of ` albendazole’ – a medicine used to get rid of any parasites in the stomach of kids. Albendazole is found to be highly effective in killing worms in the stomach which would otherwise steal away most of the nutrients from the kids. These worms are thought to be the major cause for malnutrition among the kids. Most of these worms would be transmitted through soil while kids are busy playing outdoors. The WHO has already stated that India is at the high risk of such soil-transmitted helminths (STH) in the world, with almost 220 million children below the age of 14 being at risk of worm infections. Keeping in view of such risks in children, the government has organised for the distribution of `albendazole’ for every kid in the country between the age group of 1-19. Deworming the kids with albendazole is thought to be a safe and best process for killing the worms. This deworming drive by the government is of course the largest of its kind and is certainly going to be placed in the Guinness.