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Worm-free children: an integrated approach to reduction of soil-transmitted helminth infections in Central Java

  • M.J. Park EMAIL logo , Budi Laksono , Archie Clements , Ross Sadler and Donald Stewart
Published/Copyright: January 20, 2016
Reviews on Environmental Health
From the journal Reviews on Environmental Health Volume 31 Issue 1

Abstract

Among children, infections with soil-transmitted helminths (STH) can cause anemia, impaired growth, and absence from school. Sustainable control of STH infection requires that appropriate latrines be integrated with health-promotion education. We report a pilot study of the effects of a combined latrine-education intervention in Central Java, Indonesia. The participants were 99 children (3–13 years old) in two villages (intervention and control) south of Semarang city. Stool samples were collected from the children and were examined for the presence of helminth eggs. After baseline data were collected, latrines were constructed and health education was given in the intervention village. Then, in both villages, all children who had STH infection at baseline were given 400 mg of albendazole. Eight months later, follow-up stool samples were collected and examined. In both villages, 20% of the children had STH infection at baseline. At follow-up, the incidence of STH infection was much lower in the intervention village than in the control village (4.0% vs. 20.4%; p<0.02). The results of this small pilot study give some confidence that a scaled-up study involving many more children and cluster-randomization of the intervention will be feasible and could provide more conclusive evidence of the intervention’s effectiveness.

Keywords: children; health education; Indonesia; latrine; soil-transmitted helminth
Corresponding author: M.J. Park, Menzies Health Institute of Queensland and School of Medicine, Griffith University, Brisbane, QLD, Australia, E-mail:

Acknowledgments

We are grateful to all the residents of the two villages, to the village heads, the research assistants, and the mayor of Semarang City. This work would not have been possible without generous support from the UBS Optimus foundation.

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Received: 2015-10-16
Accepted: 2015-10-16
Published Online: 2016-01-20
Published in Print: 2016-03-01

©2016 by De Gruyter

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https://doi.org/10.1515/reveh-2015-0053
Keywords for this article
children; health education; Indonesia; latrine; soil-transmitted helminth

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Editorial
  3. Traditional and emerging environmental hazards in South-East Asia: double-trouble in the 21st century
  4. A quarter century of the Pacific Basin Consortium: looking back to move forward
  5. Exposure to Metals
  6. Arsenic projects in SE Asia
  7. Lead exposure from battery recycling in Indonesia
  8. Connecting mercury science to policy: from sources to seafood
  9. Mercury exposure in the work place and human health: dental amalgam use in dentistry at dental teaching institutions and private dental clinics in selected cities of Pakistan
  10. Protecting health from metal exposures in drinking water
  11. Exposure assessment of lead from food and airborne dusts and biomonitoring in pregnant mothers, their fetus and siblings in Karachi, Pakistan and Shimotsuke, Japan
  12. Mining
  13. Reconciling PM10 analyses by different sampling methods for Iron King Mine tailings dust
  14. The “CHILD” framework for the study of artisanal mercury mining communities
  15. Hydraulic fracturing for natural gas: impact on health and environment
  16. Hazardous Waste
  17. Searching bioremediation patents through Cooperative Patent Classification (CPC)
  18. Proteomics of Sphingobium indicum B90A for a deeper understanding of hexachlorocyclohexane (HCH) bioremediation
  19. Novel industrial wastewater treatment integrated with recovery of water and salt under a zero liquid discharge concept
  20. Water
  21. Connecting science with industry: lessons learned transferring a novel plasmonic mercury sensor from the bench to the field
  22. Pilot-scale UV/H2O2 study for emerging organic contaminants decomposition
  23. Nanotechnology: a clean and sustainable technology for the degradation of pharmaceuticals present in water and wastewater
  24. Solar-driven membrane distillation demonstration in Leupp, Arizona
  25. What works in water supply and sanitation projects in developing countries with EWB-USA
  26. Natural Disasters and a Changing Environment
  27. Environmental exposures due to natural disasters
  28. Changing exposures in a changing world: models for reducing the burden of disease
  29. Sustainable development through a gendered lens: climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction
  30. Environmental Justice and Human Rights
  31. Creating healthy and just bioregions
  32. Worm-free children: an integrated approach to reduction of soil-transmitted helminth infections in Central Java
  33. Diabetes in Native Americans: elevated risk as a result of exposure to polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs)
  34. Pollution, health and development: the need for a new paradigm
  35. EcoSystem
  36. Pacific connections for health, ecosystems and society: new approaches to the land-water-health nexus
  37. Exposure to e-waste
  38. E-waste: the growing global problem and next steps
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  48. Children’s environmental health indicators in Australia: are we collecting the right information?
  49. Community-based efforts in health promotion in indigenous villages on the Thailand-Myanmar border
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