By Isabella Gyau Orhin
It was a day for Post mortem, following the death of a mentally deranged adult male.
It was not unusual to find worms in the abdomen of a human being even after they have passed away but what shocked the pathologist was the huge number of worms that had besieged the body of this person.
“Right from the nostrils to the rectum, there were thick balls of worms and that is how bad it can be,” says Prof. Agyeman Badu Akosa, Director General of the Ghana Health Service who was the Pathologist. He said although this particular person was mentally ill and was therefore not living hygienically, this is how worms can infest a person if there is no prevention or treatment of worms.
Worms take away essential nutrients especially iron and contribute to anaemia, and stunted growth.
Chronic infestation of worms can lead to long term retardation of mental and physical development. The most severe worm infestation can lead to death.
Worm eggs are passed out through human faeces of infected persons and grow on soil and in water when faeces are left out in the open.
Symptoms of worm infestation depend on the type of worms but the most common signs include loss of appetite, swollen or painful; abdomen, coughing, fever, vomiting diarrhea among others
Speaking at the Launch of the National Deworming Day in Accra last Monday, Prof. Akosa said many children in basic public schools are infested with worms worsening the already poor nutrition status of their bodies.
“If we get this deworming exercise done, we would have solved part of our malnutrition problems,” he said.
The Ministry of Education and the Ghana Health Service are embarking on the programme to deworm about 4.5 million children in over 28, 000 basic public schools across the country from the 12 to 16 of February 2007.
The Children will be dewormed by head teachers and school health teachers who have been trained to administer the deworming medicine Mebendazole which is 500mg and to teach their students about the dangers of worms.
The exercise is the beginning of an annual effort to implement two rounds of deworming each year.
The second round will take place later this year and will include treatment for Schistomiases or Bilharzia, a type of worm infestation caused by water transmitted worms.
Globally, intestinal worms account for an estimated 11 to 12 percent of total disease burden. Although there are no accurate figures on the prevalence rate in Ghana, the Ministry of Education says evidence suggests the situation in Ghana is similar to the global one. The Ministry says the three most common forms of soil transmitted worms affecting children are round worms, whip worms and hook worms.
Prof. Akosa said the health of children in any nation is paramount. Four out of 10 Children living in Northern Ghana are malnourished while 2.5 out of 10 children living in southern Ghana are malnourished as well.
Worm infestation he said is worsening the situation of the Ghana’s malnourished children.
Prof. Akosa partly blamed the issue of worm infestation among children to the break down of hygienic practices and the wanton defaecation of the citizenry anywhere.
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He said the situation was better in the olden days when personal hygiene was part of school requirements.
“Those days at the Mampong St Monica’s School, teachers examined our finger nails; our handkerchiefs and everything to make sure that were clean.”
Prof. Akosa also said children no longer played on green grass in their school as their playground is bare ground.
“Their contact with the ground is direct and exposed earth,” he said adding “Hand contact with bare earth is one of the sources of worm infestation.”
Prof. Akosa further explained that when people defaecate anywhere, the worms are spread across and this leads to worm load among children who usually play in the soil.
“The worm load is no joke, the child’s attention in the classroom very small because worms make children disinterested in their own environment.
According to Prof. Akosa, the programme should go hand in hand with educating the adult population about personal cleanliness; else the exercise will be in futility.
He said after the exercise if the children go home and their parents continue to defaecate anywhere or do not wash their hands after defecating and feed the children they will get more worm infestations.
“If we do not deliver to the GES a bouncy child, the education system will not flourish,” Prof. Akosa said.
He called on mothers and those handling the School Feeding Programme to give school children adequate nutrition.
“Food is the drug of health” he said saying if everyone will have good food, immunization and live in clean environment, most of us will do other things other than prescribing pills to people.”
Dr. Akosah said giving a child one ladle of beans everyday will go along way to improve on their health and nutrition status.
The Deputy Minister for Education Science and Sports Mr. Kwame Ampofo Twumasi said worm infestation impact seriously on a child’s health and ability to attend school and perform well by robbing children of some of the food they eat.
The National Coordinator of the School Health Education Programme (SHEP) Mrs. Cynthia Bosumtwi-Sam said efforts are underway to extend the programme to the private basic schools. Due to lack of logistics, she said the first round is only limited to children in public basic schools.
The 4.5 million tablets of the drug Mebendazole was bought by UNICEF at a cost of 80,000 dollars. The Chief of Child Health of UNICEF Mark Young said “what this mean is the opportunity to grow up without the interference of worms.”
.Source: Public Agenda Newspaper
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