Deworming school children in Ethiopia: The importance of a comprehensive approach

Jemal Ali1,7, Allison Polland2, David Adlerstein3, Yirga G Gziabher4, Galia Sabar5, Yonat Liss6 and Zvi Bentwich1,6*

Introduction: A quarter of the world’s population, most commonly in developing countries like Ethiopia, are infected with intestinal parasites. School age children are the most affected segment of the population. The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends periodic deworming of all at-risk people living in endemic areas.

Methods: In 2009, Ben Gurion University, in partnership with the NALA Foundation and in collaboration
with the Organization for Social Services and AIDS (OSSA), an Ethiopian non-governmental organization,
and the health and education bureau of Tigray Regional State, launched a deworming project for school
children in Mekele City, Ethiopia. During its four years of implementation (2009-2012), we evaluated the
effi cacy of this intervention in controlling helminthic infection in participating schools. The program
entailed a comprehensive approach, combining intensive health education with water sanitation and
mass drug administration and with pre- and post-intervention stool surveys, during each year of the
intervention.

Keywords:

Published on: Jul 10, 2019 Pages: 1-6

Full Text PDF Full Text HTML DOI: 10.17352/ojtm.000008
CrossMark Publons Harvard Library HOLLIS Search IT Semantic Scholar Get Citation Base Search Scilit OAI-PMH ResearchGate Academic Microsoft GrowKudos Universite de Paris UW Libraries SJSU King Library SJSU King Library NUS Library McGill DET KGL BIBLiOTEK JCU Discovery Universidad De Lima WorldCat VU on WorldCat