Tag Archives: PLoS NTDs

The Role of Worms in Malnutrition

nutrition,

 

Photo by Olivier Asselin

Photo by Olivier Asselin

In impoverished communities worldwide, children and pregnant women are especially vulnerable to malnutrition, anemia, impaired cognitive and physical development, and pregnancy complications. As a result, they remain trapped in poverty, facing the socioeconomic consequences of decreased productivity and an inability to work or go to school because of their poor health.

But the reason behind their suffering may surprise you.

A new article in PLOS NTDs reveals how soil-transmitted helminths — a group of three parasitic worm infections — can be the culprit in many areas with heavy neglected tropical disease (NTD) burdens and bleak living conditions.

The authors, Sabin Vaccine Institute President Dr. Peter Hotez, former World Bank Lead Health Specialist for Africa Dr. Donald Bundy and Baylor College of Medicine (BCM) Medical Resident Dr. Selvi Rajagopal, focus on vitamin A and iron deficiencies and their relationship to the three soil-transmitted helminths: ascariasis, hookworm and trichuriasis.

On vitamin A, the authors write, “As well as having direct effects, severe vitamin A deficiency can have significant indirect consequences, for example, increasing susceptibility to potentially fatal illnesses such as measles and lower respiratory infections. As a result, the link between vitamin A deficiency and ascariasis has potentially important consequences for global health, especially since ascariasis may be the most common chronic childhood infection worldwide.”

Hookworm and trichuriasis, meanwhile, can lead to iron deficiency anemia. “Among adults, even light [hookworm] infections can produce anemia, especially in pregnant women. … Moderate-to-heavy hookworm infections and trichuriasis specifically have in some circumstances been shown to lead to failure to achieve intellectual potential and cognitive impairment. … Anemia and a moderate-to-heavy parasite burden of either helminth species were identified as independent risk factors for stunting,” the authors explain.

Given the clear linkages between soil-transmitted helminths and malnutrition, the authors suggest that more research be conducted to help identify how programs delivering interventions for each can be integrated in a cost-effective, sustainable way.

To read the full article, “Micronutrient Supplementation and Deworming in Children with Geohelminth Infections,” click here.

New Article: How NTDs could reshape the Global Health Agenda

Global Health, post 2015, poverty, ,

 

women and children wash their clothes in a river nearby the Pallgant school

Photo by Esther Havens

 

The United Nation’s (UN’s) Millennium development Goals (MDGs) are set to expire in just over a year. What comes next – the post-2015 development agenda – will be critical in determining the future of global health priorities and funding. In a recent PLOS NTDs article, James Smith and Emma Michelle Taylor discuss why NTDs should be included in the post-2015 development agenda and highlight the advances made in NTD funding and recognition in spite of their omission from the MDGs.

There is a clear case for including NTDs in the post-2015 development agenda. NTD control and elimination significantly improve the health of the most marginalized communities, enhance economic performance and contribute to broader development goals included in the MDGs. In fact, not addressing NTDs could undermine efforts to reach virtually all MDGs.

But the cross-cutting nature of NTDs may actually keep these diseases from taking center stage in the post-2015 agenda, the authors argue. In the article, they say the very nature of NTDs – the fact that these diseases are “relatively invisible cross-cutting drivers of poverty” – has limited efforts to focus on them.

Despite this difficulty, the global community is taking notice and is addressing NTDs in unprecedented ways. The authors note that the absence of NTDs from MDG 6: combat HIV/Aids malaria and other diseases, “served as a call to arms for a group of concerned stakeholders, who have since contributed to a series of landmark initiatives that have placed NTDs firmly on the international agenda.”

The two most recent initiatives, which include the London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases and a milestone World Health Organization (WHO) resolution on NTDs, helped secure unprecedented funding from traditional and non-traditional sources.

“Already the fruits of the public-private partnership approach are being felt, with gains in NTD control providing hope that elimination may be a possibility for many of the diseases. The success has been such that the WHO Secretary General, Dr. Margaret Chan, recently referred to the story of the NTDs in the 21st century as one of rags to riches,” Smith and Taylor explain.

So what can we expect from a post-2015 agenda? Will NTDs be included and will this make a difference? The authors note that while NTDs are cross-cutting drivers of poverty, there has been a limited effort to realize synergies between NTDs and other areas like education, health poverty and gender. But looking forward, there’s reason to be hopeful.

As Smith and Taylor mention, “The recently-released report of the high-level panel on the post-2015 development agenda includes an ‘illustrative goal’ for health that will ‘ensure healthy lives’ and explicitly names NTDs alongside HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and non-communicable diseases.”

In closing, the authors state that by including NTDs in the post-2015 agenda, the international community could be signaling a new shift in international development – one that focuses on the “institutions we need to manage the complex social, economic, environmental, and health systems that interact to shape future development.”

To read the full article, click here. And to read more about the Global Network’s role in the post-2015 development agenda, click here.

Mapping of Loa Loa Filariasis in Africa

Africa, MDA, , , ,

By Linda Diep

Loa Loa worm

Mapping of Loa Loa Filariasis (also known as loiasis) could help in the innovation of new strategies to eliminate and control onchocerciasis (river blindness) and lymphatic filariasis (LF), according to a recently released article from the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases. The study found that mapping — a systematic method used in public health to monitor and track the pattern of a disease — could prove to be an effective way to help develop treatment for loiasis.

In African countries, an estimated 14 million people reside in the most high risk areas of loiasis, a disease that affects the skin and eyes causing itchiness, swelling, and pain. Loiasis is caused by the parasitic worm Loa Loa, and is transmitted through a bite from the African deer fly. Many sufferers of loiasis are also co-infected with river blindness and LF. In the past, co-infected individuals who have taken ivermectin, a drug used in the treatment of river blindness and LF, have experienced severe adverse neurological effects such as encephalopathy, which can put lives in danger. Continue reading →