Grant: Operating Grant: Population Health Intervention Research

Approximately 2 billion people living in developing countries suffer from worm infections every day. The effects of these worms include malnutrition, impaired growth and development, intestinal bleeding, anemia and diarrhea, among others. The effects can be chronic and irreversible, and adversely affect productivity throughout the lifespan. These infections are most commonly found in school-age children who are, therefore, the primary target for intervention programs. Programs that are school-based have been found to be most cost-effective. The deworming tablets are safe, inexpensive (and often donated), effective, single-dose and can be administered by teachers. Few of the 130 endemic developing countries have successful and sustainable national deworming intervention programs. International experts have, therefore, recently called for research initiatives to inform the planning, implementation, sustainability and evaluation of deworming programs. The proposed research will be incorporated into a rapidly unfolding deworming intervention program implemented by the Ministry of Health in the Loreto region of the Peruvian Amazon. Guidelines for a national deworming program have recently been drafted by national policy makers in Peru. These guidelines, coupled with a large donation of deworming tablets to the Ministry of Health in the Loreto region, have set the stage for this operational research project. Close collaboration between government decision-makers, program-implementers and researchers would ensure the inclusion of essential baseline and monitoring and evaluation components which need to be incorporated into programs from the start, in order to provide feedback loops to inform cost-effective and efficient program management. By incorporating research into government-led deworming intervention programs, these programs will have the potential for critical long-term sustainability and health impact.