UN completes deworming programme

The United Nations World Food Programme (WFP) in Afghanistan announced that it had completed the largest deworming campaign ever undertaken, reaching over 4.5 million children in Afghanistan. It was the first time that the UN had undertaken a national deworming programme. "This is an extremely significant contribution to the efforts of the Afghan government to improve the education of Afghan children, which WFP supports with extensive food for education programmes targeting around 1 million school children this year," Maarten Roest, a WFP spokesman, told IRIN in the capital Kabul on Sunday. Reducing worm infections improves children's physical and intellectual growth, he added. After more than two decades of war, which left much of Afghanistan's infrastructure and educational system in shatters, the challenges of covering the remotest corners of this very inaccessible country seemed insurmountable, but fortunately more than 90 percent of the targeted five million 6-12 year-old children received treatment countrywide. The campaign was a response to a 2003 study that showed that almost 50 percent of Afghan children were infected by single or multiple types of intestinal worms - with the rate as high as 75 percent at one school in Kabul, he explained. Worm infections can cause stunted growth, weight loss, reduced physical fitness, increased susceptibility to other infections, learning and cognitive deficiencies, impaired micronutrient status and anaemia. Some infections can be fatal. The children were treated at around 7,000 schools throughout Afghanistan - almost 90 percent of the primary schools in the country, including official government-run, non-official or home-based schools, as well as Islamic madrasas, the WFP official noted. The programmes also treated children of school age who were not attending school. Poor hygiene is the root cause of most worm infestation in humans. The eggs of most worm parasites are introduced into the human system through contaminated food or water. Hookworms enter the human body through walking on infected earth in bare feet. Tapeworms are transmitted to the body through under cooked flesh foods or foods contaminated by animals. Through radio spots, leaflets, posters, banners and the training of teachers and government officials, awareness was raised among community leaders, teachers and primary school children and their parents about the risks of worms and ways to prevent infection. According to WFP, a follow-up campaign, targeting urban centres where infection rates are highest, is scheduled for November 2004. The campaign would be repeated every year for three to five years, assuming funding is forthcoming. The campaign, that cost US $476,000, was carried out in cooperation with the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) with support from the Afghan health and education ministries.