A CLOSER LOOK AT SOIL-TRANSMITTED HELMINTH (STH) INFECTIONS.
- Up to 1.2 billion people – about 20 percent of the world’s population – are infected or at risk
- Children are estimated to represent about one-third (400 million) of the global STH burden.
- The highest rates of infection are often in children between ages five and 15.
- In high-transmission areas, regular treatment will stop the infection from developing into serious disease.
- Fewer than 20 percent of the at risk school-age children were reached with deworming treatment in 2005 – far short of the World Health Assembly’s target to regularly treat 75 percent of at risk children by 2010.
- Transmission of STH can be controlled through regular treatment with mebendazole, hygiene education, and provision of water and sanitation facilities.
