Experts have warned that Nigeria’s poor performance in the National Deworming Programme portends dire health impli­cations and could worsen the country’s to childhood physical and mental disabilities. child morbidity rate and lead

Recently, the Federal Ministry of Health (FMOH) raised the alarm over low acceptance of its National Deworming Programme ex­ercise across the country.

The ministry noted that out of the 40 million children targeted for the National De­worming Programme across the federation, fewer than 20 million had been reached, representing less than 50 per­cent of the national target.

Reacting, Dr. Damian Avar, founder, Sabi Doctor, public health advocate and influencer, expressed con­cern over the dangerous im­plication of the trend on the Nigerian children.

The public health advo­cate who raised the alarm, noted that the increased number of Nigerian chil­dren who missed deworming portends grave psychosocial, health and growth problems which ultimately impacts on national development.

Avar said, “The problems associated with soil-trans­mitted helminths (STH) infections are far-reaching, even to the extent of affect­ing our economic prosperity as a country. Infection with STH is a key factor implicat­ed in childhood physical and mental disability.

“This, of course, exerts a negative effect on their (chil­dren) learning potential, and consequently on their productiveness when they eventually come of working age,” he added.

“Sadly, this is the reali­ty we have to contend with it. You see, the pre-school age children (PSAC), who are most severely plagued by STH and who should be the focus of most govern­ment-initiated deworming programmes are oftentimes not captured for many rea­sons.

“Thus the responsibility for ensuring that they are dewormed falls on parents/ guardians, who most times are not well-informed on the crucial need to have their wards dewormed. Without questions, we definitely still have a very long way to go in achieving our set goals,” he added.

Avar noted that the ben­efits of full implementation and sustainable deworming exercise, would be immense.

On her part, Dr. Efunbo Dosekun, seasoned Paedia­trician and Medical Entre­preneur, said soil-transmit­ted helminth infections are among the most common in­fections in humans, caused by a group of parasites com­monly referred to as worms, including roundworms, whipworms and hookworms.

Dosekun said, parasitic worms can lead to malnu­trition. Deworming tablets allows people to absorb the critical nutrients needed to be and stay healthy.

She also warned that if children are not dewormed it could lead to serious high morbidities, psychological and social development prob­lems among them.

Parasitic worms and their larvae are generally found in contaminated food and water in poor communities or areas where cleaning does not fre­quently happen.

According to Dosekun, those living in poverty are most vulnerable to infection which can impair nutrition­al status by causing internal bleeding which can lead to loss of iron and anaemia.

Others are intestinal in­flammation and obstruction; diarrhoea, and impairment of nutrient intake, digestion and absorption.

Dr. Zainab Mimi Yaro, medical director at Dr. Mom’s Clinic & Wellness, condemned resistance and low acceptance of the de­worming tablets being dis­tributed.

“It is worrisome because these parasitic infestations are not just mere condi­tions but can progress from short-term morbidities to long-term debilitating con­ditions,” Yaro stressed.

Schistosomiasis and STH are part of the Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs) and cause considerable mor­bidity and mortality in devel­oping countries, especially among children, she noted.

The World Health Organi­sation (WHO) estimates that about 44 million children are at risk of being infected with schistosomiasis in Nigeria.

Yaro explained that the plan by the government to eliminate these NTDs will have a huge impact on child health because they can stunt growth, impair cognitive de­velopment, and causes ane­mia in children.

“It can also lead to the de­livery of underweight babies because it also causes anemia in pregnant women,” she added.

“With good medicines and streamlined strategies, these diseases can be brought to their knees, in the same vein contributing to poverty alle­viation on a massive scale,” she noted.