Table 12.
Potential impact on soil-transmitted helminths
| Individuals reached | Target | Benefits |
| 212 million children -minimal estimate- |
Soil-transmitted helminths (intestinal parasites: hookworm, roundworm, whipworm) | Weight/height gain, learning ability, cognitive testing, school attendance, fitness, activity [88–91] |
| Assumptions and reasoning | ||
| A) 1.1 billion treatments of albendazole given to children (aged 2–15 years old in countries treated with DEC and albendazole; 5–15 years old in countries using ivermectin and albendazole) in 61 countries during MDAs 2000–2014 [5, 6]. | ||
| B) The maximum number of children treated in any single MDA was determined for each country. The sum of these numbers indicates the minimum total number of children treated (212 million) [5, 6]. | ||
| Individuals reached | Target | Benefits |
| 177 million women of childbearing age, not pregnant (minimal estimate) | Soil-transmitted helminths (intestinal parasites: hookworm, roundworm, whipworm) | Decreased anaemia [92], maternal mortality, infant mortality; increased infant birth-weight [93] |
| Assumptions and reasoning | ||
| A) 947 million treatments of albendazole given to non-pregnant women-of-childbearing-age (aged 15–49 years old) in 61 countries during MDAs 2000–2014 [5, 6, 38]. | ||
| B) The maximum number of such women treated in any single MDA was determined for each country [5, 6]. The sum of these numbers indicates the minimum total number of women-of-childbearing-age treated (177 million). C) Since pregnancy is an exclusion criterion for LF treatment, the annual estimates thus derived were discounted by subtracting the estimated percent of the female population that is pregnant at any given time. | ||
Because individual country estimates of the prevalence and distribution of soil-transmitted helminths are generally not available, it was not possible to estimate directly the number of soil-transmitted helminths infections. However, a sizeable proportion of the albendazole and ivermectin treatments delivered for LF will have had a beneficial impact for children and women of childbearing age who harbour soil-transmitted helminths. The assumptions are outlined in [2]