More than 72,000 children dewormed in Bataan

BALANGA CITY, Bataan – Some 72,036 children in public elementary schools in 11 towns and one city in Bataan have so far been given deworming pills as of Wednesday.

Dr. Rosanna Buccahan, provincial health officer, said they have not received any report of children being hospitalized or treated for any side effects after taking the pills. She added that school doctors took charge in administering the deworming medicines.

Liza Zabala, laboratory inspector of the city health office of Balanga, said they completed deworming 18,873 children in all public elementary schools in the city in one day. She said also said there were no report of complaints from both children and parents. Balanga has a separate city division of schools.

In the 11 towns under the Division of Bataan, a total of 53,163 of the more than 133,000 public elementary school pupils were dewormed Wednesday. School officials said this number corresponds to 56.9% of all the children to be given deworming pills.

They said that they will continue administering the deworming pills until all children in public elementary schools are dewormed.