By Abasi Ita
Cross River State is set to commence the 2026 School Based Deworming Programme aimed at protecting hundreds of thousands of children from intestinal worm infections.
This was disclosed during a stakeholders advocacy and media engagement facilitated by Evidence Action at the Nigeria Union of Journalists Press Centre in Calabar to drum up support for the exercise.
The interaction brought together journalists, health professionals and development partners to strengthen public awareness and improve media coverage of Neglected Tropical Diseases.
Speaking during the workshop, the Cross River State Programme Officer for Neglected Tropical Diseases, Veronica Mark, said the deworming campaign is designed to improve the health and academic performance of children by eliminating worm infections that often affect their growth and concentration in school.
She explained that the programme targets children between five and fourteen years and will be implemented in schools and communities where the diseases are prevalent.
Mark said the medicines to be administered are safe and completely free and urged parents, school authorities and communities to cooperate with health workers and teachers who will administer the treatment.
Chairman of the Nigeria Union of Journalists in Cross River State, Comrade Archibong Bassey, commended Evidence Action and its partners for their efforts to improve child health across the state.
Bassey said the school based programme is important because many parents sometimes forget to deworm their children regularly and urged communities and schools to cooperate with health teams during the exercise.
Also speaking, Senior Manager of Evidence Action Nigeria and South South Programme Lead, Ambassador Eustace Toochi Ohaji, said the intervention forms part of broader efforts to eliminate Neglected Tropical Diseases by 2030 in line with global health targets adopted by the World Health Organization and the Federal Ministry of Health.
Ohaji explained that Evidence Action, a global non profit organisation operating in Nigeria since 2016, provides technical support to governments to implement large scale deworming programmes aimed at reducing intestinal worm infections among school age children.
He noted that the organisation works in collaboration with the Federal Ministry of Health, Federal Ministry of Education, the National Primary Health Care Development Agency and the Cross River State Universal Basic Education Board to deliver treatment in schools and communities.
According to him, the programme has already recorded measurable success in Cross River State since it began operations in 2016. An impact assessment conducted with the Federal Ministry of Health showed that the prevalence of soil transmitted helminth infections in the state has dropped by 48.5 percent while cases of schistosomiasis have reduced by 76 percent.
He added that the upcoming exercise will run for five days during which trained health workers and teachers will administer medication to eligible children in schools and communities. He noted that schools have also been linked to nearby health facilities to ensure that any child who experiences mild side effects receives prompt medical attention.
Ohaji further disclosed that Evidence Action currently supports deworming programmes targeting more than six million school age children annually across Nigeria and has helped treat more than forty four million children since 2016.
Meanwhile, health experts note that intestinal worm infections remain a major public health concern globally, with more than 1.5 billion people infected with soil transmitted helminths, representing about 24 percent of the world population. More than one billion children require treatment for these infections, while over 128 million children need treatment for schistosomiasis.