Bhutan - Children now Protected against Worm Infections
If the GPHF and the World Health Organisation (WHO) succeed, approximately 200,000 children in Bhutan will soon see an end to their suffering from dangerous worm infections. In March of this year, both organizations agreed to launch a five-year program (until 2007) to sustainably control these infections - which particularly affect children in Bhutan. This efficient team is being lent additional support by the Ministry of Health of the Kingdom located between India and China, Bhutan's two large neighbors.
Globally, over a billion people suffer from worm infections or helminthic diseases. Infections that are not diagnosed and treated are particularly perilous for children, since they significantly hamper their physical and intellectual development. This problem is now to be solved in Bhutan. As part of a country-wide program, Bhutan’s schoolchildren aged 5 to 15 will be examined and treated. This program will be bolstered by an information campaign aimed at informing the children and their parents of the hazards of these infections and the most effective means of preventing them.
Based on epidemiologic studies, schools will form the pivotal point of the project planning because it is here that the project can directly and immediately access the children. But the schools are not only a place of information but also of treatment and therapy. For this purpose, the first project phase involves training the teachers. Under the direction of the national health authorities, they will in future administer medicines to their pupils and monitor their taking. For a start, this ambitious project will be launched in 4 of the 20 districts of Bhutan and will be progressively extended to cover a total of 180,000 schoolchildren.
This project represents the continuation of a series of project partnerships set up between the GPHF and the WHO. Following the successful cooperation in Tanzania, the Seychelles, in Laos and – since last year - in Myanmar, both partners are confident of being able to make a valuable contribution to improving health care services in Bhutan, too.
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