These three types of infection are therefore caused by the large roundworm A. lumbricoides, the hookworms Necator americanus or Ancylostoma duodenale and by the whipworm Trichuris trichiura.

[2] The largest numbers of cases occur in impoverished rural areas of Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia, and China.

Therefore, the disease is most prevalent in warm and moist climates where sanitation and hygiene are poor and waters are unsafe, including the temperate zones during warmer months.

STH is categorised among neglected tropical diseases because it inflicts tremendous disability and suffering, which can be clinically treated and relatively easily prevented (primarily through improved sanitation), yet negligible attention has been given for many years.

[9] Simple prevention and control strategies are access to improved sanitation, public awareness of personal hygiene, and health education.

Children are more susceptible due to their frequent exposure to contaminated environments such as during playing, eating raw vegetables and fruits, and drinking wastewater.

The disease causes severe adverse effects in both the mother and infant, such as low birth weight, impaired milk production, and increased risk of mortality.

Heavy infections however cause a range of health problems, including abdominal pain, diarrhoea, blood and protein loss, rectal prolapse, and physical and mental retardation.

Severe ascariasis is typically a pneumonia, as the larvae invade lungs, producing fever, cough and dyspnoea during early stage of infection.

In endemic countries, communities remain suppressed due to malnourishment, cognitive disability, and physical weaknesses as a result of heavy infections.

[21] Prevention and control measures to prevent soil-transmitted helminthiasis are the following: availability of clean water for personal and domestic uses, improved access to sanitation which includes the use of properly functioning and clean toilets by all community members, education on personal hygiene such as hand washing and hygienic and safe food preparation; eliminating the use of untreated human faeces as fertilizer.

[2] One strategy to control the disease in areas where it is highly endemic is the treatment of entire groups of people regardless of symptoms via large scale, periodical mass drug administration.

Some researchers argue that mass deworming, in the absence of a positive test, does not improve nutrition, hemoglobin levels, school attendance, or academic performance.

[24] The World Health Organization recommends mass treatments to all at-risk groups in endemic communities, especially women of childbearing age, and children.

However, it has been reported that albendazole, mebendazole, and pyrantel pamoate are not entirely effective against T. trichiura with single oral doses in population-based control.

[32] Infections are widely distributed in tropical and subtropical areas, with the greatest numbers occurring in sub-Saharan Africa, the Americas, China, and East Asia.

[3][18][33] By type of parasitic worm, the breakdown is:[34] Latest estimates indicate that the total annual death toll which is directly attributable is as high as 135,000.