Third round of largest deworming program to start tomorrow

Over 17 million children in Bihar will be given deworming medicines tomorrow in the third round of what has been billed as the world's largest school-based deworming programme.
The school-age children, both enrolled and non-enrolled, will be given deworming medicine Albendazole after mid-day meal in all government schools.
The Bihar Mass School-Based Deworming Programme is being carried out jointly by the State Health Society of Bihar (SHSB) and the Bihar Education Project Council (BEPC), with support from Deworm the World Initiative, part of the global non-profit organisation Evidence Action.
"There is a need to expand access to deworming initiative to include preschool and out-of-school children in Bihar which will enhance to public health impact of this intervention," said Priya Jha, country director of Deworm the World Initiative in Delhi.

She said "interdepartmental linkages, sustained commitment and coordination among the government departments of Health, Education and Women and Child Development, has been the real backbone to make this world's largest deworming programme in Bihar a success".
Over 50 per cent of children in Bihar are infected with parasitic worms and all school-age children in the state are at risk of being infected at any time, she said.
In the first round of the programme carried out in 2011, 17 million children were treated, followed by 16.33 million children in 2012.