Abstract

PHARMACOVIGILANCE ACTIVITY ON NATIONAL DEWORMING DAY IN ROHTAK DISTRICT OF HARYANA: A REPORT

Dr. Jyoti Sharma*, Dr. Manjeet, Dr. Savita Verma and Dr. M. C. Gupta

ABSTRACT

Indian government (Ministry of Health and Family Welfare) launched the National Deworming Day (NDD) in February 2015 as part of the National Health Mission to combat the situation of worm infection in India. It aims to deworm all the children from 1 to 19 years in order to improve their overall health, nutritional status, access to education and quality of life.[1] Soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections form the most important group of intestinal worms affecting two billion people worldwide. India contributes nearly 25% to the total global cases with 220.6 million children in need of preventive chemotherapy.[2,3] STH infection accounts for 27% of entire school-age and preschool-age children population in the world. STH attack and live in human intestine, consume nutrients and lays thousands of eggs each day which go out through faeces and spread infection to others through soil. Overcrowding, contamination of water, poor sanitation, open defecation and migration of people to cities greatly favour transmission of parasitic infection resulting in high endemicity in India. Diarrhea, abdominal pain and low hemoglobin levels are some of the immediate outcomes of worm infestation.[2] However, the long term effects of these infections are far more sinister as those with infections show reduced cognitive abilities and intellectual capacity, malnourishment and lower work productivity.[2] According to a 2012 report ‘Children in India’, 48% of children under the age of 5 years are stunted and 19.8% are wasted, indicating that half of the country’s children are malnourished.[4] WHO recommends periodic administration of albendazole (ALB) 400 mg or mebendazole (MBZ) 500 mg for control of STH. Despite the fact that infection can be cured with either albendazole or mebendazole, eradication is difficult, given STH’s feco-oral and penetration-via-skin transmission pattern as the chances of reinfection are very high in population living in the affected areas.

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