GLOBAL EXPERIENCE IN PREVENTING PARASITIC DISEASES IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN

86 Vol. 5, No. 11 – Special Issue (EJMNS) ISSN: 2181-287X MTPHMPOI International Scientific and Practical Conference on Medical Tourism, Public Health and Management: Problems, Opportunities, and Innovations Tashkent, November 11, 2025 in-academy.uz/index.php/ejmns GLOBAL EXPERIENCE IN PREVENTING PARASITIC DISEASES IN PRESCHOOL CHILDREN Karimbayev Shahromboy Dehkanbayevich Tashkent State Medical University https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17616557 Annotatsiya: Parasitic diseases remain a major public health concern among preschool children, particularly in lowand middle-income countries where sanitation and hygiene conditions are inadequate. This literature review synthesizes findings from ten peer-reviewed studies indexed in Scopus and Web of Science between 2015 and 2025, examining global experiences, strategies, and outcomes in the prevention of parasitic infections among children aged 0–6 years. The reviewed evidence highlights three primary pillars of effective prevention: (1) mass drug administration (MDA) programs delivering periodic anthelmintic treatment through child-health campaigns and community platforms; (2) integrated water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) interventions targeting households, preschools, and daycare centers; and (3) comprehensive health education for parents, caregivers, and teachers to sustain behavioral change. Studies consistently demonstrate that while deworming substantially reduces infection intensity, reinfection rates remain high without simultaneous improvements in sanitation and hygiene. Additionally, recent works emphasize the importance of surveillance systems, community engagement, and inclusion of preschool children—often overlooked in school-based deworming programs—within national neglected tropical disease (NTD) strategies. Vector-control measures such as insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) and intermittent preventive therapy (IPTi) further contribute to malaria prevention in this age group. Globally, the combination of MDA, WASH, and caregiver education has proven most successful in reducing the burden of intestinal and vector-borne parasites in preschool populations. However, sustainable prevention requires strengthening preschool-level infection-control policies, improving access to clean water, and ensuring continuous monitoring to detect emerging drug or insecticide resistance. This review concludes that integrated, community-based, and surveillance-driven approaches are essential for achieving long-term control and eventual elimination of parasitic diseases in preschool children worldwide. Keywords: preschool children, parasitic diseases, prevention, deworming, WASH, global experience, surveillance, health education, malaria control, mass drug administration This review traces progress in control of soil-transmitted helminths (STH) and schistosomiasis, describing achievements of schooland community-based deworming programs and the move toward elimination targets. For preschool children, the paper highlights success where deworming is integrated into child health platforms (e.g., child-health days, routine contacts) and stresses the need to pair MDA with sanitation and behavior change to prevent rapid reinfection. It also flags operational challenges for reaching pre-schoolers (who are less accessible than school children) and the rising dialogue about expanding community-wide treatment [1]. WHO reporting and fact sheets document scale-up of deworming and schistosomiasis chemotherapy, showing improved coverage of young children in many endemic countries and endorsing three-pronged control: (a) periodic anthelmintic treatment, (b) improved sanitation and hygiene, and (c) health education. The WHO guidance repeatedly recommends using existing child-health delivery platforms to reach preschoolers (e.g., integrated MDA with vitamin A or immunization campaigns). The fact sheets also highlight measurement and surveillance needs to adjust program frequency [2]. This systematic review and meta-analysis of regional studies showed high prevalence of intestinal parasites among preschool children in Ethiopia and identified clear prevention priorities: improve household sanitation, provide health education to caregivers, and include preschoolers in deworming strategies. The authors emphasize socio-demographic risk factors (poor maternal education, lack of latrines) that programs should target through community education and infrastructure. Though context-specific, the prevention lessons are broadly applicable to similar low-resource settings [3]. Using cross-sectional and surveillance data, this work documents reduction trends in some parasitic infections where sanitation and health-education interventions were scaled up. It reinforces that improvements in community sanitation, potable water, and caregiver knowledge correlate with lower parasite prevalence 87 Vol. 5, No. 11 – Special Issue (EJMNS) ISSN: 2181-287X MTPHMPOI International Scientific and Practical Conference on Medical Tourism, Public Health and Management: Problems, Opportunities, and Innovations Tashkent, November 11, 2025 in-academy.uz/index.php/ejmns among preschoolers — highlighting prevention beyond drugs alone. The study supports integrating hygiene promotion in preschools and parental education to sustain gains [4]. This review analyzes evidence for community-wide vs. targeted deworming. For preschoolers, authors note that community-wide MDA can reduce force of transmission, indirectly protecting young children; however, the paper raises a cautionary note about monitoring for drug resistance and preserving refugia. Programmatically, it recommends careful surveillance and combined WASH interventions to reduce the need for frequent re-treatment [5]. This recent review summarizes advances and challenges in malaria prevention for under-five children (including preschoolers): ITNs, intermittent preventive treatment in infants (IPTi), indoor residual spraying, and community case management. It underscores the sustained importance of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) for preschoolers, while noting threats from insecticide resistance and the need to integrate vector control with early childhood programs and daycare policies (e.g., ensuring sleeping/nap times under nets where applicable) [6]. This systematic analysis of studies on preschoolers found consistently high prevalence in many lowand middle-income contexts and strong associations with household sanitation, caregiver education, and water quality. The authors conclude that effective prevention must combine regular anthelmintic treatment for eligible children with sustained WASH improvements and caregiver-focused education campaigns targeting preschools and households. They further call for preschool-specific surveillance and inclusion in national NTD (neglected tropical disease) strategies [7]. This surveillance study highlights that even with routine deworming, residual prevalence persists among children 24–59 months in some settings. It reinforces the need for local surveillance systems to detect hotspots and evaluate program impact on preschool-age cohorts. The paper recommends tailoring MDA schedules and strengthening WASH and caregiver outreach where surveillance finds persistent infection [8]. This study of daycare-attending preschoolers documents high Giardia prevalence in an institutional setting and shows associations with growth deficits. It emphasizes infection risk from person-to-person contact and shared facilities in daycare environments, recommending targeted hygiene measures in preschools (handwashing protocols, safe food handling), routine screening where outbreaks occur, and caregiver education to control Giardia transmission among preschoolers [9]. While country focused, this recent meta-analysis synthesizes prevention-relevant evidence: integrated approaches (mass deworming, household sanitation improvements, caregiver education) achieve the most durable reductions. It also documents the pattern of reinfection if WASH is not addressed, reinforcing global lessons that drug programs must be combined with structural sanitation investments to protect preschool children long-term [10]. Synthesis — practical prevention insights for preschool children Integrate delivery channels: Use routine child-health contacts (immunization visits, vitamin-A campaigns, community child-health days) to reach preschoolers for deworming and health education Pair MDA with WASH & education: Both program evaluations and meta-analyses show that repeated deworming without improvements in sanitation and caregiver behavior produces rapid reinfection. Sustainable prevention requires household and preschool-level WASH plus caregiver-focused behavior-change campaigns.Target preschools/daycares explicitly: Daycare environments are hotspots for some protozoa (Giardia) and for transmission via shared facilities — so infection control policies for preschools are essential (handwashing, safe food, outbreak screening). Surveillance & caution on MDA scale-up: Community-wide MDA can reduce transmission and indirectly protect preschoolers, but surveillance for drug efficacy and resistance, plus local prevalence data, must inform strategy. 88 Vol. 5, No. 11 – Special Issue (EJMNS) ISSN: 2181-287X MTPHMPOI International Scientific and Practical Conference on Medical Tourism, Public Health and Management: Problems, Opportunities, and Innovations Tashkent, November 11, 2025 in-academy.uz/index.php/ejmns References: 1. Weatherhead JE, et al. The Global State of Helminth Control and Elimination. (2017). PMC. 2. World Health Organization — Soil-transmitted helminth infections; program updates (WHO news/fact sheets 2018–2023). 3. Chelkeba L, et al. Epidemiology of intestinal parasitic infections in preschool and school-age children (Ethiopia systematic review). (2020). PubMed. 4. Daryani A, et al. Intestinal parasitic infections in Iranian preschool and schoolchildren. (2017). ScienceDirect. 5. Pilotte N, et al. Community-wide mass drug administration for soil-transmitted helminths: benefits and resistance concerns. (2022). Frontiers/Tropical Diseases. 6. Friedman-Klabanoff DAJ, et al. Malaria Prevention in Children: An Update. (2024). PMC. 7. Girma A, et al. Prevalence and factors associated with intestinal parasitic infections among preschool-aged children: systematic review/meta-analysis (2024). ScienceDirect/PMC. 8. Adrizain R, et al. Surveillance of Soil-Transmitted Helminth Infection in young children (2024). PMC. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov 9. Fantinatti M, et al. Giardia lamblia–infected preschoolers: growth/nutrition impacts (2023). PMC. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov 10. Azzam A, et al. Prevalence and Risk Factors of Intestinal Parasitic Infection among children: systematic review/meta-analysis (Egypt, 2025). BMC Public Health.