Parents have been advised to be deworming their young children to avoid soil transmitted bacteria which can lead to health complication.
Speaking on Thursday at her office, Kiambu Public Health Officer Jennifer Kamama said that small children enjoy playing and get into contact with soil which they at times tend to eat.
She said there are different bacteria which are present and live in soil citing schistose and soil transmitted helminthes.
She added that the bacteria commonly referred to as worms had serious effects in children and developed severe health complications, adding that some of the worms develop into intestinal worms which cause diarrhea.
“Some of the other health complications caused by lack of deworming are lack of appetite, internal bleeding which leads to anemia and malabsorption of nutrients,” said Kamama.
In a report released by World Health Organisation (WHO) 2015, soil transmitted worms in children had effects on nutritional indicators, hemoglobin and school performances.
It stated that children affected by the worm lose concentration in class fast and tend to be having stomach related complications which cause them to be absent from school thus affecting their performances.
Speaking in regards to the same matter, Josephine Ndung’u, a mother of three in Kiambu said that one of her children was used to eating soil as he played and she thought it was just a stage.
Ndung’u said she later spotted worms in his waste and when she took him to hospital, he was diagnosed with intestinal worms.
She said she was later advised by the doctor to be deworming her children at least once in three months.