Health office deworms 200,000 public school children

OVER 200,000 public school children have already been dewormed by the Department of Health (DOH) in its ongoing National School Deworming Month in Zamboanga Peninsula.

The number of children who have been dewormed, though, are still way below the target goal of DOH, which is to deworm 800,000. The target number consists of 600,000 elementary and 200,000 secondary students.

The National School Deworming Month started on January 1 and will end on January 31.

Nieto Fernandez, DOH National School Deworming coordinator, said to be dewormed are students aged five to 18 years old, or those enrolled in public kindergarten to senior high school.

Fernandez said the DOH and Department of Education (DepEd) have been coordinating with the students' parents.

The school children are given 400 milligrams Albendazole chewable tablet on full stomach and under the close supervision of the school nurses and health workers.

Fernandez has encouraged the parents to support the National School Deworming Month.

He assured the medicine given to the children is safe as it passed the World Health Organization. (Bong Garcia/SunStar Philippines)