11 lakh children to go for deworming to curb anaemia in Tripura

Along with majority of the Indian states, the northeastern state of Tripura has been witnessing a rapid rise in the number of anaemia cases, especially among adolescents and women, and to curb this, the state government is launching a massive drive to deworm some 11 lakh children in the next 15 days under Mukhyamantri Sustho Shaishob Sustho Kaishore Abhiyaan (MSSSKA), informed a senior health official here Thursday.

"In comparison to men, the trend of rising anaemic cases among children and women is higher, at 64.3 percent and 67.2 percent, respectively, during 2019-20."One of the prime causes of anaemia is often due to the presence of worms in the human body, "said Subhashish Das, Mission Director (MD), National Health Mission (NHM), Tripura, referring to data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 4 and NFHS 5.

He added, "Accordingly, under the MSSSKA, which has shown positive results, we are again going for a massive deworming programme under which some 10.91 lakh children and adolescents of the 1–19 year age group are targeted on National Deworming Day, besides 11.10 lakh of the age group of 6 months to 19 years to be provided iron folio acid under a community-based door-to-door administration programme by ASHAs and ICDS workers."

As per Das, after the launching of MSSSKA there has been a drastic reduction in anaemia, as per the findings of Swastha Tripura Shrestha Tripura, and so the government is planning to go for the third phase of the programme.

He announced, "After the success of the first two, now we are going for MSSSKA 3.0 and it will be inaugurated by Chief Minister Dr. Manik Saha on September 03 at Rabindra Shatabarshiki Bhawan here and one of the prime efforts under it is towards strengthening the Anemia Mukt Bharat programme through providing IFA supplements and bi-annual round of deworming the targeted beneficiaries."

Das also informed that the government also has plans for a mixed approach of joint implementation of intensified diarrhoea control fortnight, poshan abhiyan, social awareness and action to neutralise pneumonia successfully, tetanus and diphtheria vaccination under the MSSSKA 3.0 to be implemented from September 5 to 15 across all eight districts of Tripura.