The government will launch a deworming campaign in 44 districts in all primary and secondary educational institutions from January 22, aiming to eliminate the parasite’s harmful effects on the populace by 2025.
In the first phase, around 2.60 crore children aged between 5 and 16 years will be administered one tablet each during the 27th campaign that will end on January 31, said Directorate General of Health Services (DGHS) Director General ABM Khurshid Alam on Tuesday.
The DGHS has recorded 95-98 per cent success in every campaign, he said, adding that in 2005, almost 80 per cent of the children’s stool had the presence of the worm, and the figure came down to 7.95 per cent in 2018-2019.
DGHS’s Communicable Disease Control (CDC) unit said the programme was first initiated in 2005 and expanded to all 64 districts gradually in November 2008.
