Diagnostics and impacts of soil-transmitted helminth infections among populations from South-East Asia

Abstract

Gastrointestinal parasitic infections, in particular soil-transmitted helminths (STHs), are a major cause of morbidity in tropical developing countries worldwide. Globally, infections are estimated to cause disease-related morbidity of approximately 3.4 million disability adjusted life years and an infection prevalence of around 1.5 billion people. More than 3.5 million people manifest acute clinical symptoms, although the majority of infections represent asymptomatic cases. Severe infections cause acute clinical symptoms including malnutrition, abdominal pain, diarrhoea, fever, skin conditions and iron deficiency anemia. Most importantly, long-term sequelae in pre-school and school-aged chi..