The 2nd round of National Deworming day at state level was launched on Wednesday at the office of state health society, National Health Mission Manipur, Lamphelpat.
During the launching programme, state nodal officer, NHM Manipur A Sylvia said that with schools remaining closed as per Covid guidelines, the 2nd round of National Deworming Day will be carried out through a community based approach during specified days instead of the earlier bi-annual single day programme implemented through schools and anganwadis.
A community based approach has been adopted to ensure continuity of deworming efforts while minimizing risks related to the pandemic, she said. The door-to-door delivery and administration of Albendazole tablets to all children and adolescents aged between 1 to 19 years will be carried out by frontline health workers namely Anganwadi workers, ASHAs and Auxiliary Nurse Midwives (ANMs) during home visits while maintaining COVID-19 guidelines, she announced.
The objectives of the National Deforming Day is to deworm all pre-school and school age children (enrolled and unenrolled) between the ages of 1-29 years through the platform of schools and Anganwadi centres in order to improve their overall health, nutritional status, access to education and quality of life, she mentioned.
Sylvia said that children at the age of 1-2 are given half a tablet of albendazole (400mg), and above the age of 2 are given 1 full tablet of albendazole (400mg) to chew.
The state mission director, NHM Manipur N Shyamjai expressed that the vaccination rate in rural areas of Manipur, especially hills areas is comparatively low and the project Swaraksha will enhance the coverage. To enhance COVID-19 vaccination coverage in the rural of Manipur, the state health society-NHM is also set to implement project ‘Swaraksha’ within a week, he added.
The state health society has already initiated capacity building to nearly 40 volunteers to roll out the project which will mobilize people and refer them for vaccination. Under the project, any local volunteers who made a referral to vaccinate any unvaccinated individual will be paid Rs 50 for each person’s referral for vaccination. The project is funded by Crypto Relief and is implemented in partnership with USAID-Nishtha, Jhpieggo with digital support from Anaxee, he added.
In Northeast states, Manipur is the second state to implement project Swaraksha after Meghalaya which is a large countrywide campaign aimed to solve ‘Vaccine Hesitancy’ in rural India. So far from the identified eligible 19 lakh population, a total of 16,89,917 individuals have been vaccinated in which 12,21,577 received its first jabs and 4,68,360 received second dose, Shyamjai said.
He also urged the vaccination of all school teachers, school van drivers and students above 18 years.
Shaymjai urged the public to cooperate and support the deworming of children as it is necessary for all children to keep healthy. Every year, February 10 and August 10 are observed as the National Deworming Day. The day aims at eradicating intestinal worms also referred to as soil transmitted helminths, among children within the age bracket of 1-19 years, though due to COVID-19 pandemic, it is being launched a little late and started for door-to-door community based approaches to reach out to all children.
