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CSU 22/2008: DEWORMING IN PRESCHOOLERS

Friday, 23rd of May 2008

CSU 22/2008: DEWORMING IN PRESCHOOLERS
 CSU 22/2008: Controlling Soil-Transmitted Helminthiasis in Pre-School-Age  Children through Preventive Chemotherapy
 
 Deworming is one high impact intervention which has taken off quickly in  the last decade, before some essential research  questions were answered. In this review article, also available at
 http://www.plosntds.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pntd.0000126
  Albonico and colleagues review the published and unpublished literature on
 the subject, especially such imperfectly understood  questions as the impact of deworming on cognitive abilities and the risks  of mass drug administration in very young subjects. From the  abstract:
 
 ' The first section describes the burden of STH disease in this age group,
 followed by a summary of  how infection impacts iron status, growth, vitamin A status, and cognitive
 development and how STHs may  exacerbate other high mortality infections. The second section explores the  safety of the drugs themselves,  given alone or co-administered, drug efficacy, and the importance of safe  administration. The third section provides  country-based evidence to demonstrate improved health outcomes after STH  treatment. The final section  provides country experiences in scaling up coverage of pre-school children  by using other large scale public health  interventions, including vitamin A programmes, immunization campaigns, and  Child Health days. The paper  concludes with a number of open research questions and a summary of some of  the operational challenges that  still need to be addressed.'
 
 Good reading.
 
 BD