Two out of three Filipino children are infected with intestinal worms. And while biannual deworming is being conducted in schools all over the country, simply treating the infections will not eradicate the problem.
Poor environmental sanitation and poor personal hygiene are the major factors for exposure to worms, according to Dr. Vicente Belizario of the National Institute of Health and the UP College of Health. And poor sanitation and hygiene mean reinfection in between treatment. Heavy intensity infections require more than one dose of deworming medication. When supplies of deworming tablets are delayed, infection rates immediately increase.
The intestinal worm infection rate of 67 percent in our children isn’t acceptable in our modern times, Dr. Belizario told the participants in the School Health Summit held in Mactan, Cebu, on May 21 to 23. Yet, it is a sad reality. It means more school absenteeism, malnutrition and poor school performance in our children despite the low cost of treatment and our knowledge of how to prevent infection.
Besides the common helminth infection, schistosomiasis is staging a comeback. Dr. Belizario reported that the disease has become endemic in Sorsogon, Lanao del Norte, Zamboanga del Sur, all three Samar provinces, Bohol, Negros Occidental, Bukidnon and Agusan del Sur, among others.
Worm infections don’t kill but they severely and adversely affect physical and intellectual growth in our children. Poor families are even more affected as their meager food budgets are wasted on feeding intestinal worms.
2008 was the United Nations International Year of Sanitation. Yet, sad to say, the Philippines didn’t seem to make any special effort in terms of investing in and raising awareness of the importance of sanitation.
Access to clean water is a major prerequisite for sanitation, but even where there is water, if awareness is lacking on the importance of, for instance, the proper use of a toilet and the need to wash hands with soap after using the toilet and before touching food, then we can’t expect to change the statistics significantly. Worm infections and prevalence of other diseases resulting from poor hygiene will remain high.
Yet, health education the way we know it may not provide the solution. Dr. Wim van Palenstein Helderman, a professor of oral health of the University of Nijmegen, explained that traditional health education operates on the assumption that people always have the freedom to choose their personal behavior. Children in school learn about healthy foods and healthy habits, but when they go home, their home environment does not provide them the opportunity to practice what they learned in school. Their parents have different ideas and priorities.
The new concept is that the school itself provides the environment in which the children learn healthy habits by doing rather than by simply studying these habits. The Fit for School program of the Department of Education includes daily toothbrushing with fluoride toothpaste and hand–washing with soap. Rather than simply explaining to the children why toothbrushing and hand–washing are important, the school makes the children do it. And obviously, it is the actual doing and not the knowledge or orientation that prevents the diarrhea, worm infection and tooth decay.
More and more provinces are seeing the benefits of the program, and an increasing number of LGUs are now funding it. The cost of the supplies—toothbrush, toothpaste, soap and deworming tablets—amounts to about 25 pesos per child per year. The schools are providing the necessary structure—the teachers supervise the toothbrushing, hand–washing and deworming on school premises. The construction of the troughs where the handwashing and toothbrushing are done is usually undertaken by the school, the parents, the barangay and other local stakeholders.
Our children are our future. Families and the government spend vast resources on their education, yet worms, tooth decay and other health problems caused by poor hygiene and sanitation prevent our children from learning and growing at their fullest potential.
The swine flu, like SARS six years ago, has again bannered health and hygiene in local and national media. Worms and tooth decay don’t kill, and maybe this is why they are never big news. Yet, if we took hygiene and sanitation more seriously than we do now, maybe we would worry less about killer diseases such as swine flu. And with better hygiene and sanitation, we would be a nation of healthier and stronger citizens, better prepared economically, physically and mentally to face the challenges of global diseases. –Marit Stinus-Remonde, Manila Times
#WearMask #WashHands
#Distancing
#TakePicturesVideos
