The Ghana Health Service (GHS) is set to embark on a nationwide deworming exercise in basic schools from November 4, this year.
The annual mass drug administration of intestinal worm infestations and bilharzia is part of efforts to reduce the burden of neglected tropical diseases (NTDs).
The exercise is expected to start from November 4 to November, 8, 2019.
Director-General of the GHS, Dr Anthony Nsiah-Asare made this known at a media engagement in Accra.
He noted “The exercise is targeting six million schoolchildren from KG Two to JHS Three in 205 districts across the country to help increase their immunity against the two NTDs in particular. ”
He defined NTDs as a group of 20 infections and parasitic diseases which affect more than a billion people worldwide, most of whom according to him have lived in extreme poverty.
Dr Nsiah-Asare mentioned the 14 NTDs prevalent in the country includes; elephantiasis, lymphatic filariasis, yaws, bilharzia, Buruli ulcer, leprosy, intestinal worms, trachoma and sleeping sickness.
He indicated although the NTDs had a low mortality rate, they were often chronic, with permanent debilitating and disabling impact, such as blindness.
He however mentioned that major strategies have been adopted to help eliminate some of the NTDs.
“The GHS and its partners have, over the years, collaborated to control and eliminate NTDs in the country. Through such collaboration, blinding trachoma was eliminated in Ghana in 2018,” he recounted.
Apart from blindness, NTDs can also cause the swelling of the limbs and other body parts, as well as skin rashes and thickening.
Stressing on the need for the exercise, the Ambassador for the National NTD Campaign, Rev. Joyce Aryee, appealed to the media to intensify public education on NTDs, adding that public sensitisation and education were major tools for their eradication.
She also entreated beneficiary communities to adhere strictly to basic sanitation principles, such as the washing of hands with soap under running water.