The challenge of unreported and unprogrammed deworming for soil-transmitted helminth control programs

Soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH) affects more than one billion people worldwide. WHO aims to control STH as a public health problem by providing periodic anthelminthic treatment to ≥75% of all at-risk children. Tracking progress toward this 2020 goal relies on accurate reporting of drug coverage. For STH, this is difficult because an unknown–but substantial–proportion of deworming occurs outside nationally-administered STH control programs, so-called ‘unprogrammed deworming.’ Further, coordination of intersectoral efforts needed to administer drugs to different risk groups–and to report coverage to WHO–is inadequate. This paper describes these challenges and offers suggestions to overcome them.
Source: International Health - Category: Global & Universal Authors: Tags: COMMENTARIES Source Type: research