State postpones deworming campaign in Pune city

The state department also informed the Pune Municipal Corporation health department to give the latter’s existing stock of 2.50 lakh pills to the district health officer to be used for deworming campaign in rural Pune

The state public health department on Friday postponed the deworming campaign in Pune city citing “technical problems”. The state government has not stated when the campaign will be held, officials said.

The state government has not stated when the campaign will be held, officials said. (REPRESENTATIVE PHOTO)

The state department also informed the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) health department to give the latter’s existing stock of 2.50 lakh pills to the district health officer to be used for deworming campaign in rural Pune.

Hindustan Times had published a report on November 28 titled “PMC may delay deworming campaign due to medicine shortage” on the delay in the state-wide campaign scheduled for December 4 due to shortage of albendazole tablets. The campaign was slated to be conducted across 17 districts of Maharashtra with a mop-up round scheduled on December 10, said officials.

Dr Rajesh Dighe, city immunisation officer, said that as per the campaign plan, 4.50 lakh children aged one to 19 years in Pune city were supposed to be included. “We had stock of 2.50 lakh albendazole tablets and had requested supply of 2 lakh tablets. With the postponement of the drive, we have sent the stock of 2.50 lakh tablets to zilla parishad for their campaign,” he said.

As per officials, PMC, Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporation (PCMC) and zilla parishad, Pune were to get the albendazole tablets stock for the campaign from Mumbai. However, samples of the tablets in Mumbai failed to meet the required standards as per laboratory reports resulting in shortage of supply. Later, PCMC and ZP received the stock from Buldhana, but no medicines were provided to PMC.

Dr Nina Borade, health chief, PMC, said, “The officials are now trying to source medicines from Telangana for the drive in the city. We are ready for the campaign have completed training, line list and Information Education and Communication (IEC) activities,” she said.

Worms are parasites, which live in human intestines for food and survival. The worms consume nutrients meant for the human body and cause blood loss, poor nutrition and stunt growth. Children aged one to 19 years are included in the deworming campaign. Deworming helps reduce the burden of parasitic infections, which can cause malnutrition, stunted growth, anaemia, and impaired cognitive development in children. Deworming can help prevent complications associated with worm infections, such as nutritional deficiencies and growth impairment, thereby supporting overall health and development, officials said.