Kwara State Government on Wednesday launched mass deworming of pupils across all public owned primary schools in the state.
The initiative was done in collaboration with Nigeria’s pioneer manufacturer of intravenous fluids in Nigeria, Biomedical Limited.
Deputy Governor Kayode Alabi noted that the government is committed to the well-being of its people, especially the school children.
He also commended the pharmaceutical company for contributing their quota to the well-being of the state, saying that, “This is a commendable effort by Biomedical Limited, I salute them for this, this will also help to augment the state government’s effort towards improvement of the people especially the school children.”
Marketing manager of Biomedical Limited, Watson Olojo, extolled the state government for its job in improving the health sector. He noted that his company’s gesture is their corporate social responsibility and a way of contributing their quota to the state.
“We’re committed to the well-being of the children especially tackling the problems of malnutrition which is often caused by worms, as a matter of fact, this is our own corporate social responsibility and contributing out quota to the state,” the pharmacist said.
Executive secretary of Kwara State Primary Healthcare Development Agency, Dr Nusirat Elelu, revealed that the deworming is targeted at tackling malnutrition which is often caused by excess worm, urging that children should be dewormed every six months.
“You’re all aware of the school feeding programme where our children have access to nutritious component because worms also lead to malnutrition in children and for Kwara state we also have a programme geared towards providing nutrition programme to support children that are under five years of age.
“It is very important that deworming happens every six months, we have an ongoing nutrition programme for deworming in our primary healthcare system. Last year alone, 22,500 children were targeted and the target was met and surpassed and for this year alone we’re going to see how we’re going to surpass the target,” he said.
