By Maria Rebollo

Maria Rebollo, a Medical Doctor specialized in Public Health and neglected tropical diseases, is a consultant for the Inter-American Development Bank. She is also co-Founder and President of Zerca y Lejos, an international NGO. Since 2001, Zerca y Lejos has been working in Cameroon on  microfinance, integrated health care and public health project management (including HIV, TB, NTD, malaria, health promotion, vaccination projects), infrastructure development, water and sanitation and education projects.

Soil-transmitted Helminths (STHs), commonly known as intestinal worms, are an important cause of malnutrition, anaemia, stunted growth and impaired physical and cognitive development impacting the population of Haiti, specially affecting the most vulnerable groups such as children and women of child bearing age. The absence of good hygiene, clean water and improved sanitation make transmission of intestinal worms very easy.

To combat intestinal worm infections in a sustainable and effective way, we must focus on changing the different factors that contribute to their transmission: water and sanitation improvement, hand washing with soap and clean water, and hygiene education to promote good habits such as wearing shoes, washing hands and food or using latrines.

The children of today cannot wait for all of these improvements to be complete. The children of today have the right to grow up free of worms in order to be able to attend school and develop with all their energy and intellect. For the children of today, deworming will improve their nutritional status, physical fitness, appetite, growth, and intellectual development. For the children of tomorrow, improving water, sanitation and promoting hand washing is needed to interrupt intestinal worm transmission and have a intestinal worm free environment.

The Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) is leading this initiative by integrating infrastructure improvements with hygiene education and disease prevention and treatment through deworming. The IDB will ensure that thousands of children and pregnant women in Haiti have access to preventive and curative treatment with deworming tablets, while their communities and schools benefit from improved sanitation, clean water and points of hand washing with soap. Teachers will be trained to educate children on the use of latrines, the importance of hand washing several times a day, and will have access to these tools in school.

Haitian children and women will benefit from this integrated package through improved health and nutritional status, while the generations of tomorrow will find Haiti with less intestinal worm contamination and transmission, better hygiene habits and fewer water borne diseases.

This initiative comes during a very special moment when the World Health Organization is encouraging countries at risk to accomplish the World Health Assembly Resolution 54.19 to attain a target treatment of least 75% of all school-age children at risk by year 2010. The IDB deworming effort will help the Ministries of Health and Education in Haiti achieve this goal while a comprehensive approach for a sustainable control of intestinal worm infections and water borne diseases is put in place to improve lives of vulnerable population of today and tomorrow.

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