ILOILO City – This year the Department of Health (DOH) targets to deworm 3,750,437 schoolchildren from kindergarten to Grade 12 in Western Visayas.
The deworming seeks to address soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH) which when left untreated could result in anemia, malnutrition, weakness, and impaired physical and cognitive development.
Soil-transmitted helminths refer to intestinal worms infecting humans that are transmitted through contaminated soil (“helminth” means parasitic worm). These are Ascaris lumbricoides (sometimes called just “Ascaris“), whipworm (Trichuris trichiura) and hookworm (Anclostoma duodenale and Necator americanus).
STH could result in poor growth and school performance of children, said Dr. Marie Jocelyn Te, DOH Region 6 coordinator for emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 1.5 billion people, or 24% of the world’s population, are infected with soil-transmitted helminth infections. Infections are widely distributed in tropical and subtropical areas, with the greatest numbers occurring in sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, China and East Asia.
Te said in 2017 78.9 percent of the target population, or 520,426 students, availed themselves of the first round of deworming while 388,290 or 78 percent joined the second round.
This accomplishment was low because of the inclusion of private schools in the target, said Te.
“We cannot push so much” because some of the children in private schools have their own private pediatricians, Te explained.
Soil-transmitted helminths’ eggs are passed in the feces of infected persons. If an infected person defecates outside (near bushes, in a garden, or field) or if the feces of an infected person are used as fertilizer, eggs are deposited on soil.
Ascaris and hookworm eggs become infective as they mature in soil, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention of the United States. People are infected with Ascaris and whipworm when eggs are ingested. This can happen when hands or fingers that have contaminated dirt on them are put in the mouth or by consuming vegetables and fruits that have not been carefully cooked, washed or peeled.
Hookworm eggs are not infective. They hatch in soil, releasing larvae (immature worms) that mature into a form that can penetrate the skin of humans.
Hookworm infection is transmitted primarily by walking barefoot on contaminated soil. One kind of hookworm (Anclostoma duodenale) can also be transmitted through the ingestion of larvae.
DOH’s deworming program, held twice a year, initially involved only kindergarten up to Grade 6 pupils but this was expanded to cover students up to Grade 12.
The first round of deworming this year, held in January, covered 69 percent or 388,290 students out of the 605,101 enrolled in secondary schools.
Te said eight private schools in this city joined the deworming program although not all of their students availed themselves of deworming.
These schools were Colegio del Sagrado Corazon de Jesus, Assumption Iloilo, San Jose Parochial School, Sun Yat Sen High School, Westbridge School for Boys, Angelicum School Iloilo, Iloilo Scholastic Academy, and Filipino American School Town Iloilo.
Te expressed hope that more schools would participate.
On May 3, DOH gathered private schools in the city for an orientation about the program.
“We assure them that our medicine is safe,” Te said, adding that it is also similar to the medicines being provided by private doctors. (PNA)
