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According to the World Health Organisation, about 241 million children in India in the ages of 1-14 years are at a risk of parasitic intestinal worms or STH. This means, India accounts for approximately 28 per cent of the total number of children globally estimated to be at-risk of STH infections.

The objective of the National Deworming Day is at eradicating intestinal worms also known as Soil-Transmitted Helminths (STH), among preschool and school-age children (enrolled and non-enrolled) between the ages of 1-19 years through the platform of schools and anganwadi centers in order to improve their overall health, nutritional status, access to education and quality of life, reads the operational guidelines issued for NDD by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India is the nodal agency for providing all States/UTs with guidelines related to National Deworming Day (NDD) implementation at all levels. The programme is being implemented through the combined efforts of Department of School Education and Literacy under Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Ministry of Women and Child Development and Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Urban Development, and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) also provide support to deworming program.

Intestinal worms are parasites that live in the human intestines and consume nutrients and vitamins that a child consumes. There are three main types of STH that infect people

These worms depend on the human body for their food and survival and while being there, they lay thousands of eggs each day.

Soil-transmitted helminths are transmitted by eggs that are passed in the faeces of infected people. Adult worms live in the intestine where they produce thousands of eggs each day. In areas that lack adequate sanitation, these eggs contaminate the soil. This can happen in several ways:

In addition, hookworm eggs hatch in the soil, releasing larvae that mature into a form that can actively penetrate the skin. People become infected with hookworm primarily by walking barefoot on the contaminated soil.

There is no direct person-to-person transmission, or infection from fresh faeces, because eggs passed in faeces need about 3 weeks to mature in the soil before they become infective. Since these worms do not multiply in the human host, re-infection occurs only as a result of contact with infective stages in the environment.

Some of the common and visible signs of intestinal worm infection include unexplained weight loss, fatigue, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, and dysentery. Also, heavy infections often make children too sick or too tired to concentrate at or even attend school. If untreated or undiagnosed, worms can have a long term effect on a child’s health and development.

Often children consume enough calories but they still suffer from undernutrition largely because their diets are deficient in the essential vitamins and minerals necessary for proper physical and mental development. In addition to this, suffering from intestinal worms’ infection aggravate and intensify the loss of nutrients, especially vitamin A and Iron. This co-existence of micronutrient deficiencies and worm infestation result in impaired growth and development of our young ones.

Soil-transmitted helminths impair the nutritional status of the people they infect in multiple ways.

Morbidity is related to the number of worms harboured. People with infections of light intensity (few worms) usually do not suffer from the infection. Heavier infections can cause a range of symptoms including intestinal manifestations (diarrhoea and abdominal pain), malnutrition, general malaise and weakness, and impaired growth and physical development. Infections of very high intensity can cause intestinal obstruction that should be treated surgically.

Albendazole tablet is the suggested deworming drug and its dosage depends on how young a child is. According to experts, Albendazole is an effective drug and doesn’t have any significant adverse effects.

National Deworming Day 2020

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