A treatable Infection

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor CHERYL CRUZ Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

The University of the Philippines National Institute for Health says that 44 percent of the 22 million public school students in the country have intestinal worms. NIH Executive Director Dr. Vicente Belizario Jr. says that, although the government deworming program has improved, bringing the number of Filipino schoolchildren with worms from 70 percent in 2004-2006 to the current 44 percent, it is still not acceptable because the World Health Organization says it has to be under 20 percent.

Although the government annually spends millions of pesos on drugs for its national deworming program, it has covered only 20 percent of affected school children. Belizario feels that it is not just the medicines but the infrastructure that has to be prepared to properly implement school-based deworming. He suggests that the program should include students up to 18 years old, instead of covering only those aged 1 to14.

Belizario also thinks the government can make the deworming program more effective by addressing complaints such as the bitterness of the medicines, the stomach pains and the expulsion of the worms through the mouths of the children. He believes that educating the children and parents of the side effects and preparing local health units to deal with frightened parents and children should result in a more effective deworming program that will benefit the health and lifestyle of more schoolchildren.

He adds that intestinal worms are one of the root causes of a child’s poor performance in school and that infected children suffer from stunted growth and chronic malnutrition. He worries that parents are unmindful of the problem because they do not see the worms, one of which can pass hundreds of thousands of eggs that are infectious for up to two years.

We may not have hit the WHO target of 20 percent, but an improvement from 70 percent to 20 percent means significant progress has been made in the deworming effort. With a little more effort, it is very possible that the DepEd, DOH can work together with the parents to free our country’s schoolchildren from this treatable scourge.*