Govt Provides Deworming Medicine To Around 600,000 Islamabad Capital Territory Children

As many as 574,000 children aged 5 to14 years, have been provided deworming medicine under second phase of the deworming campaign launched by the federal government

ISLAMABAD, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 23rd Jan, 2020 ) :As many as 574,000 children aged 5 to14 years, have been provided deworming medicine under second phase of the deworming campaign launched by the federal government.

The campaign covered all public, private and Madrisa schools of the Islamabad Capital Territory(ICT).

The parents sent their children to their nearest government or private schools, colleges during school timings for free and safe deworming medicine.

The goals of the deworming campaign were to improve health and academic performance of the school-age children.

The Islamabad Deworming Initiative successfully treated 200,320 children in its first round of mass deworming in 2019, while around 574,000 children were treated in the second round.

Before the campaign, the meetings had also been organized specifically for the provision of details regarding upcoming Deworming to the heads of the public as well as private sectors schools, colleges.

Project Director Deworming Campaign Federal Directorate of education (FDE) Javed Iqbal Mirza talking to APP said that mass deworming of 17 million children in Pakistan was important in directly supporting achievement of Sustainable Development Goals and also hitting the governments top health targets of overcoming malnutrition and anemia, he remarked.

The campaign has been kicked off in coordination with the Ministry of Planning Development and Special Initiatives, Ministry of Health and Ministry of Education to overcome intestinal infections of children.

The deworming of children would ensure their improved physical and cognitive growth, resistance to infections and positive school performance, he added.

The initiative, he said, was in line with Prime Minister Imran Khan's vision of addressing the health challenges of children, including malnutrition and stunted growth.

He said before the campaign, the orientation meetings had been organized for the awareness of heads and community leaders of the public-private schools.

He said that all hospitals of the ICT were already informed about the campaign so that in case of any emergency they could handle the situation.

Chief Commissioner and District Health Officer were also taken on board regarding the campaign, he added.

Javed said that some children complained about the side effects of the medicine and they were re-covered within the schools.