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This rigorous randomized evaluation helped establish the case for school-based deworming as a highly effective intervention. Deworming in schools reduced school absenteeism by 25% and with the low cost of treatment it was found that an additional aggregate year of schooling could be gained by this program for only $3.50. The results also show that by treating school-age children there are substantial health and education benefits to the wider community, and these externalities are large enough to justify fully subsidizing treatment.
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This study examines school-based deworming in Kenya that began in 1998 to determine whether child health gains improve adult living standards. The results show that individuals who received two to three more years of deworming than the comparison group were earning 21-29% higher wages ten years later, hours worked increased by 12%, and work days lost to illness fell by a third.
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Levelling the Playing Field provides an overview of the challenges to school-age children’s health and nutrition, and the impact of these on education. Sick children do not go to school and even when they do attend school, they do not learn at their full capacity. School health and nutrition programs offer substantial benefits to children’s education by helping them to attend school and learn while there. School-based deworming is a proven platform for comprehensive school health. This section in the book reviews the evidence on the impact of worms on the health, nutrition, education and overall development of school-age children.
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Reliable and updated maps of helminth (worm) infection distributions are essential to target treatment to populations in greatest need. However, the data are rarely available in a form that is accessible to policy-makers and the managers of public health programs. The Global Atlas of Helminth Infection (GAHI) provides a solution by serving as an open-access, global information resource on the geographic distribution of soil-transmitted helminths (STH) and schistosomiasis. The GAHI website is available at www.thiswormyworld.org.
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This bulletin summarizes the evaluations of and results from the Primary School Deworming Project (PSDP) which was run in western Kenya between 1998 and 2001, and highlights Deworm the World's programs as examples of policy lessons in action.
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A cross-sectoral study of 1,237 preschool children (0-5 year olds), 1,142 school-aged children (6-15 year olds) and 960 women (>15 year olds) was conducted to understand the distribution of malnutrition, anemia, malaria and schistosomiasis and geohelminths in a north-western province of Angola.
Within the report prevalence levels of malaria, schistosomiasis and geohelminths were found to be all endemic in this poorly described area. Evidence was also found that the studies infections are associated with observed levels of anemia and malnutrition, justifying the implementation of integrated interventions for the control of these diseases and morbidities.
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A prevalence study of schistosomiasis and other intestinal helminthic infections was undertaken among school-aged children in Agaie LGA of Niger State, Nigeria last year. This was undertaken to assess the diseases in this region and provide base-line information which could be useful for integrating the area into the National Schistosomiasis Control Initiative of Nigeria Federal Ministry of Health. The study showed a gloomy picture of infections of schistosomiasis and other intestinal helminthiases in the region and recommendations follow on the urgent need for mass drug administration (MDA) for school-aged children.
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This WHO report explains the methods and results of information obtained from chemotherapy administration targeting 75 - 100% of school-aged children at risk of morbidity in a number of states where NTDs are prevalent. This administration was carried out after a World Health Assembly Resolution in 2001 urged states to obtain a minimum target for 2010.
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The WHO report contains epidemiological information on Schistosomiasis infections in 2010 including the projected the size of population requiring preventive chemotherapy and number of people treated in that year.
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The annual report outlines the activities and achievements of DtW in 2009. Key successes include: assisting with the launch of government programs in Kenya and India; providing and coordinated strategic support benefiting 20 million children across 25 countries; and advocating for a global policy shift to expand school-based deworming to millions of new children.