Grant: Planning Grants - Priority Announcement: Improve Health and Health Equity

The proposed workshop will bring together Canadian and international researchers, LMIC program managers, and experts in the fields of nutrition, parasitology, epidemiology, and health interventions. It will take place in Washington, DC and will be held in collaboration with the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). The theme will be the integration of a deworming intervention into core preschool child health packages in the Americas with the ultimate goal of improving child growth and development, thereby reducing health inequities in this age group. Worm infections like the soil-transmitted helminths (STH) contribute to health inequities in already resource-poor areas where adverse social, economic, education and other related factors contribute to the burden of poverty and poor health in childhood. Although the benefits of deworming in school-age children are well-known, much less emphasis has been given to preschool-age children who are at the most critical stage of growth and development. The workshop aims to communicate the lessons learned from research evidence, PAHO/WHO experience and from endemic countries in the Americas that have, and have not, reached good levels of coverage of their preschool-age population. Results of this workshop will be communicated to all endemic countries in the Americas through regular PAHO channels and through the peer-reviewed scientific literature.