Overview

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that infections with the main soil-transmitted helminths – the roundworm (Ascaris lumbricoides), the whipworm (Trichuris trichiura) and the hookworms (Ancylostoma duodenale and Necator americanus) – contribute 5.18 million disability-adjusted life-years worldwide in 2010. Globally, an estimated 820 million people are infected with roundworms, 460 million with whipworms and 440 million with hookworms.

Although each species has specific characteristics, these soil-transmitted helminthiases are grouped together for control purposes, owing to: (i) similar geographical endemicity and at-risk groups that are affected; (ii) treatment by the same medicines; (iii) the same tools used for diagnosis; and (iv) similar mechanism of negative impact on human health (linked to the intensity of infection).

Contents

• PUBLICATION HISTORY
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
• GLOSSARY
• EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
  • Purpose of the guideline
  • Guideline development methodology
  • Available evidence
  • Recommendations
  • Rationale
  • Remarks
  • Research gaps
  • Plans for updating the guideline
• INTRODUCTION
  • Objectives
  • Scope
  • Population of interest
  • Key questions
  • Outcomes of interest
  • Target audience
• BACKGROUND
  • Soil-transmitted helminth infections
  • Burden of the disease
  • Morbidity caused by soil-transmitted helminth infections
  • Overall evidence on morbidity due to soil-transmitted helminth infections
  • Efficacy of deworming medicines
  • Safety of deworming medicines
  • Cost of delivering deworming medicines
  • Current strategies to reduce soil-transmitted helminth infections
• EVIDENCE AND RECOMMENDATIONS
  • Effects and safety of preventive chemotherapy in preschool and school-age children
  • Effects and safety of preventive chemotherapy in non-pregnant adolescent girls and women of reproductive age
  • Effects and safety of preventive chemotherapy in pregnant women
  • Effects and safety of preventive chemotherapy in the context of HIV infection
• IMPLEMENTATION OF THE GUIDELINE
  • Implementation considerations
  • Regulatory considerations
  • Ethical and equity considerations
  • Monitoring and evaluation of guideline implementation
• RESEARCH GAPS
• GUIDELINE DEVELOPMENT GROUPS
  • WHO steering group
  • Guideline development groups
  • External resource groups
  • Systematic review teams
  • Management of conflicts of interests
  • Identification of priority questions and outcomes
  • Evidence identification and retrieval
  • Quality assessment and grading of evidence
  • Formulation of recommendations
  • Decision-making during the guideline development group meeting
  • Document preparation and peer review
• DISSEMINATION AND PLANS FOR UPDATING
  • Dissemination
  • Plans for updating the guideline
• REFERENCES
• ANNEX 1. QUESTION IN POPULATION, INTERVENTION, CONTROL, OUTCOMES (PICO) FORMAT
• ANNEX 2. GRADE SUMMARY OF FINDINGS TABLES
• ANNEX 3. LOGIC MODEL FOR THE CONTROL OF SOIL-TRANSMITTED HELMINTH INFECTIONS
• ANNEX 4. WHO STEERING GROUP
• ANNEX 5. WHO GUIDELINE DEVELOPMENT GROUPS
• ANNEX 6. EXTERNAL RESOURCE GROUPS
• ANNEX 7. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW TEAMS
• ANNEX 8. PEER-REVIEWERS
• ANNEX 9. WHO SECRETARIAT

This publication is a World Health Organization (WHO) guideline. A WHO guideline is any document, whatever its title, containing WHO recommendations about health interventions, whether they be clinical, public health or policy interventions. A standard guideline is produced in response to a request for guidance in relation to a change in practice, or controversy in a single clinical or policy area; it is not expected to cover the full scope of the condition or public health problem. A recommendation provides information about what policy-makers, health-care providers or patients should do; it implies a choice between different interventions that have an impact on public health and that have ramifications for the use of resources. All publications containing WHO recommendations are approved by the WHO Guidelines Review Committee.

Suggested citation:

Guideline: preventive chemotherapy to control soil-transmitted helminth infections in at-risk population groups. Geneva: World Health Organization; 2017. Licence: CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO.

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