Bhubaneswar: To combat the threat of intestinal worms among children and women, the Department of Health and Family Welfare will deworm 12 million children and women across the state during National Deworming Day (NDD). The first round of deworming will take place February 10 and the mop-up round will be held February 17 for those who missed the earlier date. Children aged between nine and sixty months will receive age-appropriate vitamin A solutions at routine immunisation sites and special village health sanitation and nutrition day during the same period.
Addressing the media here, Bijaya Kumar Panigrahi, Director of Family Welfare, informed, “During NDD, the children aged 6 to 19 years and women of reproductive age between 20 and 24 years will be provided with Albendazole tablet while children aged 1 to 5 years will be administered age-appropriate Albendazole suspension at respective schools and anganwadi centres facilitated by teachers, Anganwadi and ASHA workers”. “In some of the identified blocks of seven districts i.e. Bolangir, Cuttack, Kalahandi, Kandhamal, Khurda, Nayagarh and Rayagada, where Filariasis doses are administered, the children between 1 and 2 years of age will only be covered under NDD,” said Panigrahy. All schools and Anganwadi centres will be the implementation sites of the NDD.