A new study from the London Centre for NTD Research has been published which highlights that school based deworming programmes which target school children need to be integrated with other control programmes to have an impact on the wider community.
The study, led by the
London Centre for NTD Research argues that school-based deworming programmes which treat soil-transmitted helminths (STH) have many important benefits for school-aged children, but target only a small proportion of parasites in the wider community, highlighting the need for furtherresearch lookinginto the wider impacts ofcontrol programmes.
The paper, published in PloS NTDs explains, "Since there are very few studies which look at the indirect effect of school-based treatment, we need to do more studies to estimate mixing patterns and the impact on transmission in order to design effective programmes in the future."
The study showed that the impact of school-based treatment depends on the extent to which school children over-contribute to transmission in the community than adults - something which hasn't been studied since the early 1990s.
The London Centre for NTD Research, which was opened on January 30 this year, aims to address these and other research needs to strengthen theevidence-base around effectiveNTD control programmes.
This London Centre'sresearch will serve to provide demand driven technical advice and support to countries looking to develop and implement their own government-led programmes.
Read the article, How Effective Is School-Based Deworming for the Community-Wide Control of Soil-Transmitted Helminths?
Read more on the Importance of Deworming in Schools.
