State health department to launch a massive community bases door-to-door deworming exercise from today

As part of successfully implementing the 10th round of National Deworming Programme (NDP) during the Covid-19 pandemic, the State health department will launch a massive community based door-to-door deworming exercise from October 5 to 12.

Till the previous rounds, the deworming programme in Telangana has been generally implemented through schools and anganwadis which had led to an unprecedented coverage every year since 2016.

In view of the Covid-19 pandemic and also to avoid the situation where gains made during the previous deworming exercises are lost due to the pandemic, the authorities have decided to launch a community based door-to-door exercise to implement the deworming programme between October 5 and 12.

As part of the exercise, all children between the age



group of 1 and 19 years will be dewormed throughout the week. Chewable Albendazole tablets will be administered by ASHA (Accredited Social Health Activists) and Anganwadi teachers.

The administration of the drug will be done with a proper adherence to Covid-19 risk management. Field level healthcare workers had underwent a series of training sessions on the modalities of administering Albendazole during the pandemic.

The health department is aiming to administer the drug to 1 crore children and teens (103.05 lakh) between the age group of 1 to 19 years across all the 33 districts. Principal Secretary, Health, Medical and Family Welfare, S A M Rizvi has urged all the stakeholders to support the initiative through active participation.