Study faults ongoing school Deworming programme

Researchers have raised doubts about the health and educational benefits of the ongoing school deworming programme. The programme with six million school children beneficiaries in Kenya and 95 million globally is mainly supported by the World Bank, World Health Organisation and the Gates Foundation.

The programme was established after a 1998 study in western Kenya led by Michael Kremer of Harvard University, which concluded that mass de-worming improved children’s health and school performance. However,a new analysis by researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine now claims that these conclusions were based on exaggerated data.

“There is quite substantial evidence that mass de-worming programmes do not show benefit in terms of average nutritional status, haemoglobin, cognition, school performance, or death.”

Mr Kremer has strongly defended his study in the International Journal of Epidemiology. He says that although they may have made several mistakes, their conclusions were solid and valid.

Further doubts of the benefits of mass de-worming have been put into by the reputable Cochrane Review, which examined 44 mass de-worming studies involving 67,672 participants and concluded it is of little benefit. In their findings published last month, Cochrane researchers concluded that mass de-worming improves weight gain in children but there is limited evidence of other benefits.

“I am not too concerned whether mass de-worming improves school performance by reducing intestinal worms in children. A worm-free child is definitely a healthier person,” said Charles Mwandawiro.

Mr Mwandawiro, the head of partnerships and collaboration at the Kenya Medical Research Institute, said he was not aware of any study that had shown that de-worming alone can increase educational performance.

“But de-worming accompanied by other interventions such as clean water, good nutrition and general hygiene build a better pupil.”
 

The World Health Organisation (WHO) at the weekend defended the original study. In a statement, WHO said it had appraised the Cochrane findings and concluded de-worming is important for school children’s health and well-being. WHO is also a member of the Cochrane Review.

“The administration of single-dose albendazole or mebendazole is safe and the most cost-effective strategy to reach infected children and improve their health and well-being,” said WHO.

Reference : www.standardmedia.co.ke