Deworming rates and lack of awareness of the National Deworming Day in the endemic region of Kashmir: an opportunity to improve public health using immunization program infrastructure

We assessed the level of regular, periodic deworming and awareness of National Deworming Day in the local population in the endemic region of Kashmir by conducting a cross-sectional survey in the local population of patients (or their attendants for patients 18 years of age or younger) who visited the hospital as outpatients or were admitted as inpatients. The study team presented questionnaires with simple questions about deworming and child immunization to 1150 participants, noted responses, and then compiled the data. We found that the level of regular deworming was very low: only 3.7% (43/1150) of respondents regularly dewormed themselves and 16.34% (188/1150) dewormed their children at least once in a year. None of 1150 participants was aware of national deworming day despite having adequate knowledge about the immunization infrastructure. The immunization infrastructure can be used to improve public health in such circumstances.