A new “worm index” confirms a strong association between helminth infections and impaired human development. In June 2012, a landmark United Nations conference on sustainable development was held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Known as Rio+20, the conference focused on a new set of sustainable development goals (SDGs) that would begin following the sunset of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) in 2015 [1]. Like the MDGs, the SDGs will focus on poverty reduction, gender equality, and human and economic development, but in addition the SDGs will also emphasize food security and key issues related to the environment, such as climate change, the oceans, and biodiversity [1].
To date, unlike MDG 6, which includes combatting “AIDS, malaria, and other diseases,” the preliminary SDGs outlined at Rio+20 do not list specific diseases. Yet over the last decade, increasing evidence links the major neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) to a significant adverse impact on both human and economic development, especially for the major helminth infections, i.e., hookworm and the intestinal helminth infections, schistosomiasis, and lymphatic filariasis [2]. According to the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 (GBD 2010), these helminth infections rank among the leading NTDs in terms of disability-adjusted life years (DALYs), accounting for approximately 10 million DALYs [3].
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