I don’t think deworming is a perpetual need? I don’t think I took deworming pills growing up, and I doubt most Forum readers did.
That is true, infrastructure can be build and infections eliminated. That is echoed by the WHO (only some schools are recommended treatment while “sanitation and access to safe water [and] hygiene” can reduce transmission).
I possibly underestimated the facility of reducing contamination and overestimated the inevitability of avoiding contaminants. According to the above sources, sanitation, hygiene, and refraining from using animal fertilizer can reduce contamination. Further, wearing shoes and refraining from spending time in possibly contaminated water reduces the risk of infection by avoiding contaminants. Thus, only people that cannot reasonably avoid spending time in water, such as water-intensive crop farmers, who are in areas with high infection prevalence are at risk while solutions in other situations are readily available. Since farming can be automated, risk can be practically eliminated entirely.
I don’t think we should have a strong prior belief that if we subsidize health interventions for X years, this means they’ll need to be continuously subsidized by the globally rich, while “systematic” policy changes in the West are successful as one-offs.
I agree. According to Dr. Gabby Liang, the SCI Foundation currently works on “capacity development within the [program country] ministries.” This suggest that international assistance can be eventually phased out. It can also be that most health programs develop capacity and thus make lasting changes, even if they are not specifically targeted at that. Policy changes that are a result of organized advocacy, on the other hand, may be temporary/fragile, also since they are not based on the institution’s reasoning or research. So, I could agree with the greater effectiveness of SCI than the cited letter writing (but still would need more information to have either perspective).
That is true, infrastructure can be build and infections eliminated. That is echoed by the WHO (only some schools are recommended treatment while “sanitation and access to safe water [and] hygiene” can reduce transmission).
I possibly underestimated the facility of reducing contamination and overestimated the inevitability of avoiding contaminants. According to the above sources, sanitation, hygiene, and refraining from using animal fertilizer can reduce contamination. Further, wearing shoes and refraining from spending time in possibly contaminated water reduces the risk of infection by avoiding contaminants. Thus, only people that cannot reasonably avoid spending time in water, such as water-intensive crop farmers, who are in areas with high infection prevalence are at risk while solutions in other situations are readily available. Since farming can be automated, risk can be practically eliminated entirely.
I agree. According to Dr. Gabby Liang, the SCI Foundation currently works on “capacity development within the [program country] ministries.” This suggest that international assistance can be eventually phased out. It can also be that most health programs develop capacity and thus make lasting changes, even if they are not specifically targeted at that. Policy changes that are a result of organized advocacy, on the other hand, may be temporary/fragile, also since they are not based on the institution’s reasoning or research. So, I could agree with the greater effectiveness of SCI than the cited letter writing (but still would need more information to have either perspective).