Project HOPE Donates Medicine for Massive Deworming Campaign in Honduras

Under the slogan, “Let us study happily without worms,” the First Lady of Honduras, Ana Garcia Hernandez, in conjunction with the Ministry of Health and other partners, inaugurated the National Deworming Campaign on April 8, 2015.  Project HOPE is providing two million tablets of Mebendazole, a medicine used to eliminate intestinal parasites, over the next five years to help with this campaign.

The goal of the campaign is to decrease gradually and substantially the prevalence of intestinal parasitism in the public and private school populations of Honduras. The campaign would like to reach the more than 1.4 million children ages 2-14 attending public and private schools in all 18 districts of Honduras.

This event was coordinated by the Ministry of Health, Education and Social Development and the Office of the First Lady, through Healthy Schools and the World Food Program, with technical and financial support from the Pan American Health Organization, Operation Blessing International, Project HOPE and Feed the Children.

Honduras has been conducting mass deworming campaigns since 2000, with an emphasis on pre-school and school-age children, who are at high-risk of getting parasites. Parasites can cause anemia and adversely affect physical growth, cognitive development and attention span. Parasites are small creatures that live in the intestines. Some are not visible to the naked eye and cause disease when they enter the body.