Impact of community-directed treatment on soil transmitted helminth infections in children aged 12 to 59 months in Mazabuka District, Zambia |
| |
Authors: | Halwindi Hikabasa Magnussen Pascal Siziya Seter Handema Ray Meyrowitsch Dan W Olsen Annette |
| |
Institution: | Department of Biological Sciences, School of Natural Sciences, University of Zambia, Box 32379 Lusaka, Zambia. hikabasa@yahoo.com |
| |
Abstract: | This study assessed the impact of adding community-directed treatment (ComDT) to the routine health facility (HF)-based treatment on prevalence and intensity of soil transmitted helminth (STH) infections among children aged 12 to 59 months. Repeated cross-sectional surveys were conducted among randomly selected children of this age group from the intervention area (HF+ComDT area) and the comparison area (HF area) at baseline (n=986), 12 months (n=796) and 18 months (n=788) follow-up. The prevalence of Ascaris lumbricoides was significantly higher in the HF+ComDT as compared to the HF area at baseline (P=0·048), but not at 12 and 18 months follow-up. At baseline the HF+ComDT area had significantly higher intensities of A. lumbricoides compared to the HF area (P<0·001), but not at 12 and 18 months follow-ups. Prevalence and intensity of hookworm did not differ significantly between treatment arms at any time. Analysis of trends showed a significant decrease in prevalence of A. lumbricoides and hookworm in the HF+ComDT area (P<0·001), of hookworm in the HF area (P<0·05), but not of A. lumbricoides in the HF area. It is concluded that the ComDT approach generally enhanced the treatment effect among under-five year children and that this alternative approach may also have advantages in other geographical settings. |
| |
Keywords: | |
本文献已被 PubMed 等数据库收录! |
|