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9.5 Million Children in Latin and South America to Receive Anti-Parasite Meds

Operation Blessing International (OBI) has announced a major expansion of its anti-parasite campaign that will result in an estimated 9.5 million children in Latin and South America being treated with medication in 2008. OBI president Bill Horan made the announcement from Honduras, where he attended a ceremony last week with Xiomara Castro de Zelaya, the First Lady of Honduras, to announce the campaign in that country.

The expanded program will begin with an initial distribution of medication to take place in March that will treat an estimated 5 million children in Colombia, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua and Peru. Six months later, in September, OBI will provide a second dose of the medication to those same children, plus treat an additional 4.5 million children in Brazil, Guatemala and Mexico. By the end of 2008 some 9.5 million children will receive 14.5 million doses of anti-parasite medication from OBI.

In each country, OBI is working in conjunction with the government and thousands of churches that will distribute the medication, called Albendazol, and to provide basic hygiene training to combat future infestation. OBI is providing the medication, supervision and management of each program, along with anti-parasite educational materials designed by the World Health Organization.

Intestinal worms pose a serious health problem in Latin and South America and are one of the top ten causes of death in children under five. Lack of proper hygiene makes the population susceptible to infestation. Children become infested by eating with unclean hands, walking barefoot in infested soil, eating unwashed food, and exposure to animal and human waste.

Albendazol is highly effective against a variety of internal parasites including pinworms, roundworms, tapeworms, whipworms and hookworms. Pregnant women are especially vulnerable to hookworms, which cause internal bleeding and anemia. In many cases, the worms consume as much as 25 percent of the food that an infested person eats, thus depriving the body of nutrition. This is especially harmful in a developing country where food is hard to come by. Young children are exceptionally at risk. Other results of worm infestation are a weakened immune system, chronic sickness, stunted growth, a reduced cognitive ability, headaches and stomach pains. If recipients do not practice good basic hygiene the medication must be given every six months.

OBI's anti-parasite campaign has been in place since 2003 and has treated over 15 million children to date in countries including China, India, Indonesia, Cambodia, Philippines, Laos, Nigeria, Niger, Guatemala, Peru and Mexico. In February 2008, for the fourth time, OBI treated approximately 2 million women and children in one day in Peru utilizing a network of 2000 churches and over 42,000 volunteers. In Guatemala, OBI has worked with the Departments of Health and Education to facilitate the de-worming of Guatemala's entire population of over 2.1 million school age children in 2005 and 2006.

Says Bill Horan, "We are so excited about how our anti-parasite program is expanding, and what a profound impact it has on entire developing countries. It's hard to believe that a single pill costing less than a nickel can completely change and brighten the life of a child. Imagine going to bed every night with a belly ache, always feeling hungry even after eating, being sick all the time and not knowing why. How could you grow up to be a productive citizen? One Albendazol pill wipes out the worms and our training component teaches mothers how to prevent re-infestation. This program can elevate the health and life style of entire countries. It's clear that healthy, energetic kids have a much better chance of breaking the cycle of poverty than kids that are sick all the time. OBI will continue to aggressively expand this program into as many countries as possible."

Operation Blessing International (OBI) is one of the largest charities in America, providing strategic disaster relief, medical aid, hunger relief, clean water and community development in 22 countries around the world on a daily basis. In 2007, OBI responded to a record 20 disasters in 14 countries. In recent years, OBI has also made headlines as a first responder to four major U.S. hurricanes; the tsunami disaster in Indonesia, Sri Lanka, India and Thailand; and they were on the ground staging supplies along the Gulf Coast days before Katrina. In New Orleans, OBI has provided nearly $60 million in cash grants, relief supplies, and over 265,000 hours of volunteer service. Most recently, OBI mobilized teams and funded major relief and recovery efforts in the Hunan Province of China, Rift Valley in Kenya, Bangladesh, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, the Darfur region of Sudan, Pakistan, Somalia, India, Indonesia, Mozambique and the Philippines.

judythpiazza@newsblaze.com