title: Routine deworming of children at deployed military healthcare facilities.
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.
authors.affiliation: From the *Department of Military Medicine, Royal Centre for Defence Medicine, Birmingham; and †Department of Surgery, Role 3 Hospital, Camp Bastion, Joint Medical Group, Afghanistan.
authors.forename: David N
authors.initials: DN
authors.lastname: Naumann
authors.forename: Jonathan
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Lundy
authors.forename: Daniel S
authors.initials: DS
authors.lastname: Burns
authors.forename: Mark S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Bailey
authors.forename: Douglas M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Bowley
mesh_terms: D000346:Afghanistan; D000871:Anthelmintics / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006268:Health Facilities; D006291:Health Policy; D006373:Helminthiasis / Q000188:drug therapy*; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008889:Military Personnel
chemical_list: D000871:Anthelmintics