WHO Global Partners for Parasite Control

In May 2001, the World Health Assembly unanimously passed a resolution establishing the Partners for Parasite Control Program (PPC) of the World Health Organization (WHO) to begin dealing in earnest with parasitic worms, especially schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthes (STH). PPC is leading worldwide efforts to achieve the resolution’s goal: at least 75% of all school-aged children at risk of schistosomiasis and STH be routinely treated by 2010.

PPC serves as a forum for discussion, and is open to all interested parties that are engaging in, or wish to engage in, parasite control. PAHEF has been an active participant in PPC meetings in Rome, Geneva and Washington DC. To read the meeting notes of the Rome 2002 PPC meeting, click here . Click on the PDF image in the upper right for the Report of the Third Global Meeting of the Partners for Parasite Control: Deworming for Health and Development held in Geneva in November 2004.

If you'd like to read the August 2007 issue of the PPC's Newsletter Action Against Worms, please click here.

In Latin America and the Caribbean, affordable, essential, single-dose drugs can help the estimated 20-30 million people who are needlessly suffering from intestinal worms. Within the partnership, pharmaceutical companies provide such drugs to treat people infected with intestinal worms living in high-risk areas. Integrated approaches of the global partnership, which comprises the public, commercial, and nongovernmental sectors, and existing control programs are expanding access to these essential drugs by streamlining delivery and reducing costs and thereby lowering the worm burden among those most vulnerable.