The effect of long-term deworming on the prevalence of soil-transmitted helminthiases in Malaysia

Once-yearly, mass deworming with broad spectrum anthelmintics over a period of five years among four types of communities in Malaysia resulted in an overall education in the prevalence of soil-transmitted helminthiases by one-third to two-thirds. The reduction in prevalence of infection was highest among inhabitants in semi-urban settlements (65.5%), followed by those in the rural estates (53.0%) and high-rise flats (43.9%). Soil-transmitted helminthiases were only reduced by 35.5% in the urban slums. Reduction in infection with Trichuris trichiura was better than that with Ascaris lumbricoides whereas hook-infection was completely eliminated in some of the communities surveyed. The reduction in prevalence ofsoil-transmitted helminthiases by long-term, once-yearly deworming alone, without other supplementary interventions, reinforces the potential and feasibility of regular mass-deworming as an immediate and effective measure for the control ofsoil-transmitted helminthiases. This is of great public health significance especially in highly endemic communities where some form of intervention is urgently needed and facilities for other control measures such as the improvement of environmental sanitation and nutritional status and health education are neither feasible nor possible nor immediately available.