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 Sanitation: Traditional hookworm control methods generally include interventions seeking to improve sanitary disposal of feces. This could prevent hookworm eggs from ever entering the soil.
Shoes: Avoiding contact with potentially contaminated soil is another traditional hookworm control method.
Chemotherapy: Deworming is another strategy for treating and controlling hookworm infection. By reducing or eliminating the adult parasites living in human hosts, the transmission cycle can be interrupted.
Vaccine: The above three strategies are useful and effective, but the impact in many communities is short-lived. Reinfection with hookworm after treatment has been shown as soon as 4 months later, and the impact of sanitary improvements may not take effect for decades. A low-cost, effective vaccine would provide a long-lasting medical tool that could limit hookworm infection in communities continuously. Unfortunately, a hookworm vaccine is not yet available. HHVI is working to develop a vaccine. More information about the vaccine that HHVI is working on is available here.
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