Neglected Rural Public Health Issue： The Case of Intestinal Roundworms

Despite increasing institutional and financial support, certain public health issues are still neglected by the Chinese Government. The present paper examines the soil-transmitted helminth （STH） infection and reinfection rates by conducting a survey on 1724 children in Guizhou Province, China. Our r...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:China & world economy 2013-05, Vol.21 (3), p.25-43
Main Authors: Zhang, Linxiu, Cai, Yingping, Wang, Xiaobing, Ma, Xiaochen, Medina, Alexis, Smith, D. Scott, Rozelle, Scott
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Children
Children & youth
Childrens health
China
Correlation analysis
deworming
Financial services
I14
I15
I18
Infections
intestinal roundworms
O10
O53
Parasitic diseases
Parent educational background
poor
Poverty
Public health
reinfection
Rural areas
Studies
Surveys
中国政府
健康问题
农村
土壤传播
感染率
蛔虫
财政支持
驱虫药
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Summary:Despite increasing institutional and financial support, certain public health issues are still neglected by the Chinese Government. The present paper examines the soil-transmitted helminth （STH） infection and reinfection rates by conducting a survey on 1724 children in Guizhou Province, China. Our results indicate that 37.5 percent of children had been infected with one or more of the three types of tested STH. However, only 50.4 percent of children reported having taken deworming medicine during the 18-month period before the survey. Of those who reported being dewormed, 34.6 percent tested positive for STH infections. Poverty and number of siblings are significantly and positively correlated with infection and reinfection, and parental education is significantly and negatively correlated with infection and reinfection. Given the ineffectiveness of treatment in these areas to date, for anthelminthic campaigns to actually succeed, China must pay more attention to local- level incentives to improve children＇s health.
ISSN:1671-2234
1749-124X
DOI:10.1111/j.1749-124X.2013.12020.x