More than 40 lakh children across the state were administered ‘Albendazole’ tablet on Thursday. The state health department reported no case of adverse impact of the tablet on children in any part of the state on the day. Under the national de -worming day, the health department in association with other departments had made an elaborate arrangement to administer Albandazole tablets to 42.77 lakh children between one to 19 years of age.
The objective of the drive is to make children free from helminthic diseases and thus improve their physical and mental health. The children who are left out of the drive due to various reasons would be covered under a mop up drive on August 16. A survey by medical health and family welfare ministry indicate that 68 per cent of the children in the state are affected by helminthic worms.
The helminths are the parasites that absorb nutrition from the body tissues and induce malnutrition which adversely affect growth of body and apart from physical growth the worm also affects mental growth of the individual.