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Abstract
In a village where the river bends around the maize fields, seven-year-old Amina wakes with a stomachache that has become as routine as the sunrise. She is small for her age — her classmates call her “little sister” though some are younger — and by mid morning her energy has drained away like water through sand. Her mother gives her herbs and waits. Nobody in the village has ever told her that the worms stealing her daughter’s growth arrived through bare feet on the path to the well, through unwashed hands, through lettuce rinsed in river water. They are, in truth, unwelcome guests invited in by the simplest gaps in daily hygiene.
References
World Health Organization. Soil-Transmitted Helminth Infections: Fact Sheet. Geneva: WHO, 2024. www.who.int World Health Organization. Guideline: Preventive Chemotherapy to Control Soil
Transmitted Helminth Infections in At-Risk Population Groups. Geneva: WHO, 2017. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Parasites – Soil-Transmitted Helminths. www.cdc.gov Prüss-Ustün, A., et al. Burden of disease from inadequate water, sanitation and hygiene for selected adverse health outcomes. Geneva: WHO, 2019. Curtis, V., Cairncross, S., & Yonli, R. Domestic hygiene and diarrhoea – pinpointing the problem. Tropical Medicine & International Health, 2000; 5(1): 22–32.
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