Mindanao kids mostly hit by worms
-A A +ATuesday, February 26, 2013
INTESTINAL worms affect mostly Mindanao-based children because of low access to toilets and water supply, an official of the National Institute of Health (NIH) said Tuesday.
Overall, NIH head Dr. Vicente Belizario said some 8.8 million Filipino children are still suffering from the disease called helminthiasis.
However, he said the number is actually 72 percent lower in 2004, when the Department of Health (DOH) first launched a nationwide deworming campaign.
Last November, the United Nations Children's Fund (Unicef) reported that approximately 26 million Filipinos still don’t have access to a sanitary toilet.
Most of the areas absent of sanitary toilets are in the rural areas especially Masbate, Northern Samar, and provinces in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
Belizario said the high number of children with helminthiasis could be attributed to the parents’ lack of awareness about its ill effects such as the possibility of the worms coming out of the mouth. (HDT/Sunnex)
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