National Deworming Day conducted on 10th February, 2019 across the country by Health and Family Welfare Ministry

A largest public health program for large number of children during a short period

• Health and Family Welfare Ministry conducts National Deworming Day on 10th February, 2019 across the country to reduce the prevalence of parasitic intestinal worms among children.
• During the program, Albendazole tablets were orally administered to pre-school and schoolgoing children in the age group of 1 to 19 years.
• The objective of National Deworming Day is to deworm all preschool and school-age children (enrolled and non-enrolled) between the ages of 1-19 years through the platform of schools and Anganwadi Centers in order to improve their overall health, nutritional status, access to education and quality of life.
• As per World Health Organization report, 64 per cent of the Indian population under 14 years is at risk of such infections. During this round, over 24 Crore Children and Adolescents will be covered. 

National Deworming Day – Program Details

• It is an initiative of Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India to make every child in the country worm free. This is one of the largest public health programs reaching large number of children during a short period.
  More than 836 million children are at risk of parasitic worm infections worldwide. According to World Health Organization 241 million children between the ages of 1 and 14 years are at risk of parasitic intestinal worms in India, also known as Soil-Transmitted Helminths (STH).

STH transmission:
1. Adult worms live in human intestines for food and survival and produce thousands of eggs each day.
2. Eggs are passed in the faeces of infected person.
3. Infected people who defecate outdoors spread worm eggs in the soil.
4. Eggs contaminate the soil and spread infection in several ways: ─
5. Ingested through vegetables that are not carefully cooked, washed or peeled;
6. ingested from contaminated water sources;
7. Ingested by children who play in soil and then put their hands in their mouths without washing them.

The Organizing key player

• The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, Government of India is the nodal agency for providing all States or UTs with guidelines related to National Deworming Day (NDD) implementation at all levels.
• The program is being implemented through the combined efforts of Department of School Education and Literacy under Ministry of Human Resource and Development, Ministry of Women and Child Development and Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation
•  Ministry of Panchayati Raj, Ministry of Tribal Affairs, Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of Urban Development, and Urban Local Bodies (ULBs) also provide support to deworming program.

Implementation

• NDD (first round) is conducted on February 10 each year. Bi-annual round of deworming is recommended in the States where prevalence of STH infection is more than 20% and annual round in other (less than 20% prevalence) states. Only two States namely Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh have reported less than 20% prevalence and recommended for annual round.
• The first round of NDD was conducted in February 2015 and 8.9 crore children were administered the deworming tablet across 11 states/UTs by achieving 85% coverage. India and world Thereafter 88%, 77%, 88% children were covered against the set targets in February 2016, August 2016 and February &August 2017 rounds of NDD respectively.
• 26.68 crore children have been administered albendazole till February 2018, and more than 114 crore doses of albendazole were administered to children 1-19 years, since 2015
• In order to increase program outreach to private schools and maximize deworming benefits for large number of children various awareness activities (media mix) are involved under the program. The awareness campaign spreads awareness about importance and benefits of deworming