Study Background and Disease Burden
Soil-transmitted helminths (STHs), including species such as Necator americanus, represent a major public health burden globally, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and parts of Latin America. These parasitic infections affect over a billion people worldwide, mainly in low-resource settings with poor sanitation. Chronic infections can result in malnutrition, anemia, impaired cognitive development in children, and adverse pregnancy outcomes. Historically, control efforts have focused on school-based deworming programs targeting children, the population segment most vulnerable to morbidity. However, to achieve elimination of STH as a public health problem, it is hypothesized that interrupting transmission through community-wide treatment could be necessary. The DeWorm3 initiative was designed to test the feasibility of interrupting STH transmission through high-coverage, community-wide mass drug administration (MDA) with albendazole, administered biannually over three years, compared with standard school-based deworming, in endemic regions of Benin, India, and Malawi.
