Drugs to protect children from worms and bilharzia have been administered to about 2.5 million schoolchildren in basic schools in selected districts throughout the country.
All schoolchildren between five and 14 years in both public and private schools in 107 districts received the drugs.
The distribution exercise was organised by the Neglected Tropical Disease Programme under the Public Health Division together with the Ghana Education Service.
An official of the programme, Mr Bright Alomatu, a biologist, who spoke with the Junior Graphic in an interview said the exercise which started last month was expected to be completed by mid-December.
He said currently, the only region left to be covered by the exercise was the Volta Region.
Mr Alomatu said the drugs administered to the children were Albendazole to deworm the kids and Praziquantel for bilharzia.
Mr Alomatu said the children were encouraged to eat before they took the drugs under the supervision of their teachers and other health officials.
He said the side effects of the drugs included vomiting, abdominal discomfort, headache and weakness but pointed out that if the side effects were mild or moderate, teachers had been trained to handle the situation.
Mr Alomatu noted, however, that if the effects were severe the child was taken to the nearest health centre for free medical care.
He said usually children experienced such problems when they took the drugs on an empty stomach.
Mr Alomatu said both diseases have adverse effects on children, causing them to absent themselves from school. If the drugs were taken, therefore, it would destroy the parasites and the eggs as well to enable children to attend school without disruption.
He said, for instance that, if a person infected with bilharzia swims in a river, that person could easily infect others who used the river.
Mr Alomatu said there was often blood in the urine of persons infected with bilharzia; this causes an infected child to be anaemic and affects his/her growth.
He said the programme was done annually depending on the availability of the drugs.
