Kwara Gov’t, FG Will Deworm 9,000 School Children

In collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, the Kwara State government will deworm over 90,000 school-age children in the state.

The partners on Thursday flagged off the deworming programme of school-age children under the national home-grown school feeding programme in selected 11 schistosomiasis endemic in local government areas of the state.

The national coordinator of the National Tropical Diseases (NTD) unit of the federal ministry of Health, Dr. Nse Akpan, said that 63 wards in the 11 local government areas that are classified as highly and moderately endemic with schistosomiasis would be treated with free, safe and effective praziquantel PZQ 600mg.

Represented by Adewale Ayodeji, the NTD national coordinator said that the deworming drug was donated to the state through the federal ministry of Health, adding that it would be administered using a calibrated dose pole on the children.

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Akpan said that over 804,219 school-age children and over 184,289 adults are at risk of schistosomiasis, adding that the disease is endemic in 15 local government areas of Kwara state.

“These figures shows a significant number of at-risk population in North-Central zone and Nigeria at large if left untreated with the aid of WHO and FMoH treatment guideline.”

Also speaking, the minister of Humanitarian Affairs, Disaster Management, and Social Development, Sadiya Umar Farouq, who was represented by Mrs Idiatu Ibiyeye, said that the nationwide deworming exercise, with particular emphasis on those pupils benefiting from the national home-grown school-feeding programme (NHGSP) aimed to give school-age children access to free deworming medications together with the free meals.

Earlier, the state coordinator of the National Social Investment Programme (NSIP), Hajia Bashirat AbdulRazaq, had said that an estimated 1,456 schools were enlisted to benefit from the free feeding programme in the state during flag-off in July 2022.

She stated that schistosomiasis is still a major cause of mortality and morbidity, adding that it is characterized by the passage of blood in urine and can ultimately affect physical fitness and intractable chronic infections which lead to cognitive loss.