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Updated: May 10, 2026

Determining Soil-transmitted Helminth Infection Status and Physical Fitness of School-aged Children
Published on: August 22, 2012
Routine deworming of children at deployed military healthcare facilities
David N Naumann1, Jonathan Lundy, Daniel S Burns
1From the *Department of Military Medicine, Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, Birmingham; and †Department of Surgery, Role 3 Hospital, Camp Bastion, Joint Medical Group, Afghanistan.
Abstract:
The World Health Organization advocates mass antihelminthic treatment of school-age children in areas of high prevalence of soil-transmitted helminths. Soil-transmitted helminths prevalence in Afghanistan is 20-50%, but a high proportion of children do not attend school, so may be missed by deworming programs. The primary function of military medical assets in a theater of war is to provide life, limb and eyesight saving treatment. Additional humanitarian aid in the form of nonemergency treatment has also been provided in Afghanistan for thousands of civilian children. Children represent 3-15% of the patients treated at deployed military medical facilities. We report on recent experience of deployed surgical teams in southern Afghanistan who have noticed high levels of soil-transmitted helminths in war-injured patients. Military medical assets may provide an opportunity to integrate a policy of deworming of children into existing programs of humanitarian support. This would not be a substitute for mass deworming programs, but a supplementation.
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