Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2015 Oct 22;9(10):e0004214.
doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0004214. eCollection 2015.

The Case for Mass Treatment of Intestinal Helminths in Endemic Areas

Joan Hamory Hicks  1 , Michael Kremer  2 , Edward Miguel  1
Affiliations
Review

The Case for Mass Treatment of Intestinal Helminths in Endemic Areas

Joan Hamory Hicks et al. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. .

Abstract

Two articles published earlier this year in the International Journal of Epidemiology [1,2] have re-ignited the debate over the World Health Organization's long-held recommendation of mass-treatment of intestinal helminths in endemic areas. In this note, we discuss the content and relevance of these articles to the policy debate, and review the broader research literature on the educational and economic impacts of deworming. We conclude that existing evidence still indicates that mass deworming is a cost-effective health investment for governments in low-income countries where worm infections are widespread.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

Comment in

  • Don't Shoot the Messenger.
    Walson JL. Walson JL. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2015 Oct 22;9(10):e0004166. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0004166. eCollection 2015 Oct. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2015. PMID: 26492330 Free PMC article. No abstract available.

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Aiken AM, Davey C, Hargreaves JR, Hayes RJ. Re-analysis of health and educational impacts of a school-based deworming programme in western Kenya: a pure replication. Int J Epidemiol. 2015. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Davey C, Aiken AM, Hayes RJ, Hargreaves JR. Re-analysis of health and educational impacts of a school-based deworming programme in western Kenya: a statistical replication of a cluster quasi-randomized stepped-wedge trial. Int J Epidemiol. 2015. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Miguel E, Kremer M. Worms: Identifying Impacts on Education and Health in the Presence of Treatment Externalities. Econometrica. 2004;72(1):159–217.
    1. Hicks JH, Kremer M, Miguel E. Commentary: Deworming externalities and schooling impacts in Kenya: a comment on Aiken et al. (2015) and Davey et al. (2015). Int J Epidemiol. 2015. - PubMed
    1. Aiken A, Davey C, Hargreaves J, Hayes R. Pre-analysis plan [Internet]. Washington: International Initiative for Impact Evaluation; 2013. [cited 2015 Jul 26]. http://www.3ieimpact.org/media/filer_public/2013/05/14/aiken_replication...

Supplementary concepts