Suspend-It

While most are busy reading diet pills and colon cleanser reviews, I think it’s high time we all should think of deworming as well. After all, the world is full of parasites that there are chances of acquiring them however clean you are. A simple negligence on your part to wash hands thoroughly before eating or preparing food or even just eating an unwashed salad or under cooked meat can get you the eggs of these parasites.

Makes you shiver, huh? It’ll make you shiver more when you find out that according to UNICEF, report of “The state of the world’s children 1998” says that about 1.5 billion people have roundworms, making it the third most common human infection in the world. It’s very clear; the chances of these parasites creeping inside us are very high.

With this information, I’m sure you’re now asking yourself this, “How often should I deworm myself and my family?” The answer to the question is that in most cases, deworming once every six months is sufficient. However, it can be done more frequently as deemed appropriate by your doctor. In any case, deworming the whole family twice a year is necessary.

The conventional drug of choice is Mebendazole/albendazole in suspension or chewable tablet. This is because the side effects are too few and those side effects that exist are not caused by the drug itself but by dead worms being expelled from the body. Before deworming though, it is still best to consult with your doctor to know the prevalence of parasites in your areas and consequently know the amount of dosage and frequency on taking the deworming drug.

I was supposed to buy memory for my laptop when I was called to go back to the office due to some pest infestation (I was in charge of the fumigation stuff just so you know). The guys responsible for the pest control sort of skipped a part of the office. My boss saw an army of ants ready to invade our pantry. My boss, OC as he is, “requested” that I immediately call back the pest control guys to complete their unfinished work. Sigh.

Office pests are typical especially if you have a pantry with lots of milk and Ovaltine. Ants are not much of a problem but rats and roaches might jam with them if you get too careless. So we have monthly fumigation to rid the office of the pests. Anyway, I learned a lesson from this experience… never trust people who kill rats for a living (haha just kidding!)