Treating children for worms yields long-term health and economic gains, a national study has revealed.
Focused on Kenya and covering 20 years, the study found that children who receive a few extra years of deworming eventually have better jobs and higher incomes than those who got less treatment.
In the National Bureau of Economic Research study, students were selected from 50 Kenyan schools to begin health education and deworming treatment in 1998 or 1999, while those at 25 others started the regimen in 2001.
Twenty years later, the study notes increased cognitive abilities and reduced school absenteeism among dewormed schoolchildren.
However, with the closure of learning institutions where school children received some meals and medical care including deworming medication, efforts towards healthy children have been interrupted.
“For these kids, losing a couple of years of schooling can have really bad consequences, they need a response right now to find a way to deliver at least some of those services,” researchers said.
According to the World Health Organization, more than 1.5 billion people translated to 24 per cent of the global population are currently infected with parasitic worms.
In the country, six in every 10 children are also infected with a parasitic worm.
They include the hookworm, roundworm, whip-worm, and flatworm, these parasites infect the intestines and in some cases the urinary tract.
Globally, more than 868 million children are at risk.
Infection by parasitic worms is mostly concentrated in warm, damp climates where low-income communities have poor sanitation.
“When infected people defecate in the open, the parasites’ eggs contaminate the soil or freshwater, tiny worms can penetrate the feet of a passerby and work their way up to the hosts’ intestines,” it states.
Depending on the degree of infection, the health impact can range from mild to severe.
“Children may experience stomach ailments and fatigue. Infections also have been linked to impaired physical and mental development,” the study says.
Edited by R.Wamochie
