Impact of a 5-year mass drug administration programme for soil-transmitted helminthiases on the spatial distribution of childhood anaemia in Burundi from 2007 to 2011
File(s)
Published version
Author(s)
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
Background: Childhood anaemia affects 1.8 billion people globally. Little is known about the long-term impact of mass drug administration (MDA) for the control of soil-transmitted helminthiases (STH) on the spatiotemporal variation of anaemia prevalence and severity. We describe the long-term spatiotemporal impact of a 5-year STH MDA programme (2007–2011) on the prevalence of anaemia and anaemia severity in school-aged children (SAC) in Burundi. Methodology/Principal Findings: We used annual haemoglobin concentration and STH data collected during 2007–2011 in 31 schools in Burundi. Spatial dependence in prevalence and severity of anaemia was assessed using semivariograms. Bayesian geostatistical models were developed to (a) quantify the role of STH (adjusted for other anaemia determinants) in the spatiotemporal distribution of anaemia prevalence/severity, and (b) predict the geographical variation of both outcomes across Burundi. Adjusted population data were used to estimate the geographical distribution of the number of SAC at risk of anaemia and with low and moderate/severe anaemia. Infections with Ascaris lumbricoides and Trichuris trichiura were positively and significantly associated with childhood anaemia; hookworm infections were not. A significant decrease in anaemia prevalence, from 40–50% (2008) to 10–20% (2011) was predicted in western areas. The predicted prevalence of low-severity anaemia decreased from 40–50% (2008) to <20% (2011) in southern and eastern areas. Moderate/high-severity anaemia was concentrated in western regions of Burundi, with pockets of moderate/high-severity anaemia in central and northern regions in 2008. The overall number of predicted anaemic children decreased from 443,657 (2008) to 232,304 (2011), with a resurgence after MDA disruption in 2010 (to 480,605). Prevalence of low- and moderate-severity anaemia was higher in boys than in girls. Conclusions/Significance: Despite ongoing MDA, the prevalence of anaemia in SAC remained high and increased in certain parts of the country. It is recommended that MDA programmes targeting STH are complemented with specific anaemia interventions.
Date Issued
2022-10-17
Date Acceptance
2022-10-14
Citation
Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease, 2022, 7 (10)
ISSN
2414-6366
Publisher
MDPI AG
Journal / Book Title
Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease
Volume
7
Issue
10
Copyright Statement
© 2022 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ 4.0/).
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36288048
PII: tropicalmed7100307
Subjects
anaemia
Ascaris lumbricoides
CHILDREN
EPIDEMIOLOGY
HEMOGLOBIN
hookworm infection
HOOKWORM INFECTION
HOUSEHOLD
Infectious Diseases
INTENSITY
INTERVENTION
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
model-based geostatistics
Parasitology
predictive risk mapping
PREGNANCY
school-aged children
SCHOOLCHILDREN
Science & Technology
soil-transmitted helminthiases
spatiotemporal modelling
Trichuris trichiura
Tropical Medicine
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
Switzerland
Article Number
307
Date Publish Online
2022-10-17