Soil-transmitted helminthiasis: the relationship between prevalence and classes of intensity of infection

Abstract

Background: Recently, WHO has developed a predictive model to evaluate the impact of preventive chemotherapy programs to control the morbidity of soil-transmitted helminths (STHs). To make predictions, this model needs baseline information about the proportion of infections classified as low, moderate and high intensity, for each of the three STH species. However, epidemiological data available are often limited to prevalence estimates.

Methods: We reanalyzed available data from 19 surveys in 10 countries and parameterized the relationship between prevalence of STH infections and the proportion of moderate and heavy intensity infections.

Results: The equations derived allow feeding the WHO model with estimates of the proportion of the different classes of infection intensity when only prevalence data is available.

Conclusions: The prediction capacities of the STH model using the equations developed in the present study, should be tested by comparing it with the changes on STH epidemiological data observed in control programs operating for several years.

Keywords: Epidemiology; Soil-transmitted helminths.