chennai the state health department will send its doctors nurses and health staff to schools and colleges to tackle one of the biggest public health problems among teens in tamil nadu anaemia among adolescents nearly half the girls and a quarter of boys suffer from iron deficiency limiting their development increasing risks of infections and decreasing physical and mental fitnessthe state will hold more than 25000 health camps in schools and colleges along with more than 2127 primary health centres to measure the health status particularly anaemia of more than 108 crore students health minister ma subramanian said here on tuesday launching the programme at the manthope government girls higher secondary school in saidapet we announced these camps will be held to improve the health of adolescents the aim is to provide comprehensive healthcare services and increase awareness about important health issues and healthy living among those in the 11 19 years age group special focus will be given to anaemia he saiduntil now as part of the national weekly iron and folic acid supplementation programme school students in government and aided schools of tamil nadu are given one tablet every thursday it is a prophylactic measure to minimise risk among all students the medicine is supplied to schools by the health department and schoolteachers distribute the medicine to students said director of public health dr t s selvavinayagam under the new scheme students will be tested for anaemia and those with the problem will be categorised as mild moderate and severe for treatment he said they will be under treatment until their status is normal he said the state will also undertake research to understand the causes and treatment he said during the health camps students including 559 lakhs adolescent boys and 53 lakhs adolescent girls including both schoolgoing and outofschool adolescents under 19 years will undergo various tests apart from being given health counselling and taught about healthy living practices data from the fifth edition of the national family health survey 2020 2021 showed that 529 of adolescent girls and 246 among adolescent boys have anaemia the aim of this screening is to make tamil nadu an anaemiafree state by doing this we anticipate a gradual decrease in maternal and infant mortality rates in the years to come said health secretary gagandeep singh bediwhen the number of red blood cells in the body gets too low the person diagnosed to have anaemia red blood cells carry haemoglobin a protein that carries oxygen throughout the body without enough haemoglobin oxygen doesnt get to the bodys organs without enough oxygen the organs cant work normally children often feel weak and cant concentrate on academics