Handbook Of Helminthiasis For Public Health

Written by internationally respected experts, Handbook of Human Helminthiasis provides information essential in the development of an integrated approach to the prevention, control and treatment of disease caused by endoparasitic helminths. The text is divided into sections dealing with the main groups of helminth infections and the diseases they i

This second edition of the popular advanced student textbook (previously published as Worms and Disease: A Manual of Medical Helminthology) has been thoroughly updated and revised since it was first published in 1975. It is an authoritative handbook covering all human helminth infections with particular emphasis on diagnosis, treatment, clinical manifestations, pathogenesis, epidemiology and control. Practical guidelines are given for estimating the clinical and public significance of helminthiases, vital in areas where the majority of inhabitants are infected with many helminths but only a few are sick.

Over a billion people in sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Americas are infected with one or more helminth species, causing morbidity that helps maintain the vicious cycle of poverty, decreased productivity, and inadequate socioeconomic development. This report presents an evaluation of current research and challenges in controlling the helminthiases of public health importance, including onchocerciasis, lymphatic filariasis, soil-transmitted helminthiases, schistosomiasis, food-borne trematodiases and taeniasis/cysticercosis. The evaluation covers five major themes--intervention, epidemiology and surveillance, environmental and social ecology, data and modelling, and fundamental biology. Despite the recent demonstrated successes and expansion of tools for the helminthiases outlined here, and the development of some research capacity, the evaluation found major deficiencies in our current control tools, in diagnostics, and in our fundamental knowledge of helminth biology and transmission dynamics, as well as in capacity and policy for health research. Thus the current research issues are summarized here, and opportunities for improving disease control and reducing poverty are identified. Recommendations are presented to inform public health policy, guide implementation programs, and focus the research community on the needs of disease control and the opportunities for bettering human welfare. This is one of ten disease and thematic reference group reports that have come out of the TDR Think Tank, all of which have contributed to the development of the Global Report for Research on Infectious Diseases of Poverty.

More than 2000 million people worldwide are affected by schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections and 155 000 deaths are reported each year. These infections are diseases associated with poverty, and in school-age populations in developing countries, intestinal helminth infections rank first among the causes of all communicable and noncommunicable diseases. This book describes a cost-effective approach to the control of these infections, based on the use of periodic parasitological surveys of school population samples. It is intended as a guide for health education managers responsible for implementing community-based programmes.

This second edition of Bench aids for the diagnosis of intestinal parasites is intended both as a practical tool for the diagnosis of intestinal parasitic infections for laboratory and field workers and as a teaching aid for students and trainees. The plates are arranged on two sides: the recto with microphotographs for the identification of eggs larvae trophozoites cysts and oocysts occurring in faeces and the verso dedicated to the different copromicroscopical methods (procedures) and main staining techniques used in parasitology. Special attention has been devoted to all graphical and pictorial contents. The decision to include the outline of an Ascaris lumbricoides egg in its relative size next to each parasitic structure fulfils the intention of visualizing the actual dimensions that the eye needs to be looking for when examining the specimens with a microscope. For each image the size of the parasite and a short description are provided to assist in the microscopical identification. Two summary plates one for helminths and the other for protozoa are also included to provide a visual overview of the different presentations of parasitic elements. The bench aids have been produced in a weatherproof plastic-sealed format that is robust and easy to use at the bench. They are recommended for use by all health workers engaged in the routine diagnosis of intestinal parasitic infections.

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.

Human helminthiasis, known as worm infections, is any macroparasitic disease affecting humans, in which a part of the body is invaded by a lot of worms, known as helminths. They are broadly classified into flukes, tapeworms, and roundworms. Soil-transmitted helminthiasis and schistosomiasis are the most important, being included into the neglected tropical diseases. Helminthiasis has been found to result in poor birth outcome, less cognitive development, lower school and work performance, lower socioeconomic development, and poverty. Soil-transmitted helminthiases are responsible for parasitic infections in as much as a quarter of the human population worldwide. This group of infective diseases has been targeted under the joint action of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies and local governments, trying to achieve their eradication.