Soil-Transmitted Helminths
Richard R. Roach
Abstract
Helminths currently affect over 2 billion people worldwide with a quarter of the world’s population infected at some time in their lives. Sobering statistics from the WHO March 2008 report that 80% of the “Bottom Billion” impoverished population of the world have Ascaris, 60% have Trichuris, and 57% have hookworms. This would only be a problem of pharmacologic distribution if not for an additional report demonstrating that several new studies reported to the WHO claim a 50% failure rate clearing Trichuris and 90% failure rate clearing hookworm. These parasitic infections pose a challenge to tropical physicians who have considered mebendazole and albendazole as adequate treatments for children. This is even more of a challenge for physicians in temperate climates who may be less familiar with these medications. This article presents the recent data and the approach to treatment failure and new therapeutic approaches.