WHO WER 9648 | Schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiases: progress report, 2020

Despite pandemic-related disruptions, a total of 76.9 million people received treatment for schistosomiasis in 2020, representing a global coverage of 31.9%, compared with 105 million treated in 2019 (coverage of 44.8%).

The latest data published by the World Health Organization (WHO) show that 28.6 million fewer people were treated for schistosomiasis (bilharzia) in 2020 than in 2019. This 27% drop in the number of treatments delivered is largely due to the implementation of COVID-19 measures, including school closures.

Treatment targeted at school-aged children decreased from 66.8% in 2019 to 44.9% in 2020.

The global PC coverage rate of adults for schistosomiasis was 15.7%

The number of school-aged children reached with STH deworming fell by 25% in 2020 to 342 million, from 455.7 million in 2019. For preschool-aged children, coverage decreased by 42.9%, from 165.8 million in 2019 to 94.7 million in 2020.

In many countries, deworming programmes were carried out to some extent in schools. This is probably due to the resilience of school programmes, which are supported by teachers, who were able to organize some deworming in class despite repeated closures of schools.

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