Preventive Chemotherapy in Human Helminthiasis

Download or read book Preventive Chemotherapy in Human Helminthiasis written by World Health Organization and published by World Health Organization. This book was released on 2006 with total page 75 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This manual focuses on how and when a set of low-cost or free drugs should be used in developing countries to control a set of diseases caused by worm infections. Preventive chemotherapy in this context means using drugs that are effective against a broad range of worm infections to simultaneously treat the four most common diseases caused by worms: river blindness (onchocerciasis), elephantiasis (lymphatic filariasis), schistosomiasis, and soil-transmitted helminthiasis. Significant opportunities also exist to integrate these efforts with the prevention and control of diseases such as trachoma. The new approach provides a critical first step in combining treatment regimens for diseases which, although different in themselves, require common resources and delivery strategies for control or elimination.