WHO meeting on regional framework for control and prevention of soil transmitted helminths
WHO/Christian Gapp
16-17 September 2013, Bonn, Germany
A WHO meeting on regional framework for control and prevention of soil transmitted helminths in the European region was held in Bonn, Germany on 16-17 September 2013.
Soil-transmitted helminths (STH) are among the most common infections worldwide. More than 1.5 billion people, or 24 % of the world's population, are affected by STH worldwide. WHO estimates that 4.2 million children are in need of periodical de-worming across the WHO European region.
The meeting aimed to review the progress made since the first meeting (December 2012) and addressed the following specific objectives:
- to provide global, regional and country updates on STH control and prevention and respective efforts in Emergency Training Resources for Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH);
- to share experience and lessons learnt with regard to country-level assessments of STH situations and problems;
- to introduce and discuss key findings of a questionnaire survey on STH; and
- to agree on and elaborate further the draft regional framework for control and prevention of STH in children and scale up partnership action towards its implementation.
Representatives attended the meeting from: Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine, Uzbekistan as well as WHO headquarters, WHO/Europe and the WHO European Centre for Environment and Health in Bonn.
The meeting was organized by the WHO European Centre for Environment and Health in close collaboration with the programme on malaria and other vector-borne and parasitic diseases of WHO/Europe and WHO headquarters.
