EKSG to deworm school pupils

From Victor Akinkuolie  Ado-Ekiti
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Ekiti State Government has concluded plans to deworm all pupils in the public primary schools across the state.

Senior Special Adviser to Governor Kayode Fayemi, on Home Grown School Feeding, Mr. Ademola Obanise, disclosed this at a stakeholders’ meeting held  in Ado-Ekiti.

He recalled that Governor Kayode Fayemi in the Five Pillar Agenda of his administration clearly stated that the Social Investment Programmes will be reinstituted to create Social Safety Nets for the poor and the vulnerable of the society.

He said that the Home Grown School Feeding Programmme of the Federal Government that started in the state during Dr. Kayode Fayemi’s administration will be completed with the Primary School deworming exercise in the month of November, 2019, to help stabilize the pupils’ health status which will enhance their concentration on their studies.

Obanise explained that the deworming exercise is necessary at this time to promote the nutrition of Ekiti pupils which will keep them healthy and emotionally alert.

The Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD) Manager in Ekiti State, Dr. Kayode Ojo, in his goodwill message to sensitize stakeholders at the meeting analysed different types of worms, their contact points, effects and control which is easily contracted by school age children.

He emphasized that it is necessary at this time to complement the Feeding Programme with a view to enhancing the nutrition status of the school pupils.

The NTD Manager revealed that worm infected children usually have growth and mental retardation, malnutrition, anemia reduction alongside other diseases which, lead to children urinating blood.

 Dr. Ojo assured that the administration of Governor Kayode Fayemi will collaborate with the Federal Government of Nigeria to carry out the mass deworming exercise at ensuring that all children across the state are free of worm infestation, but the public school pupils will come first.