Deworming in Crises: What Works When Resources Are Low

When disaster strikes—whether it’s a war zone, a flood, or a refugee camp—deworming in crises, the targeted use of anti-parasitic drugs to treat intestinal worms and other infections during humanitarian emergencies. Also known as mass drug administration, it’s one of the most cost-effective health interventions you’ve never heard of. In places where clean water is gone, toilets are overflowing, and children play in mud, worms don’t just cause discomfort—they steal nutrients, stunt growth, and weaken immune systems. A single dose of albendazole can clear roundworms, hookworms, and whipworms in minutes. That’s not magic. It’s medicine meeting need.

What makes deworming in crises different from routine treatment? Timing. Speed. Scale. In normal settings, you might test for parasites first. In a crisis, you don’t have time. You give drugs to everyone—kids, mothers, even adults—because the risk of infection is too high to wait. The World Health Organization has been doing this for decades in over 70 countries, mostly through school-based programs or community distribution. When Syria’s hospitals collapsed, or after the Haiti earthquake, or in Rohingya refugee camps, teams walked door-to-door with pills in hand. They didn’t need labs. They didn’t need doctors. They needed trust, logistics, and drugs like albendazole, a broad-spectrum antihelminthic used to treat soil-transmitted helminths and other parasitic infections and praziquantel, the standard treatment for schistosomiasis and tapeworms. These aren’t fancy drugs. They’re cheap, stable at room temperature, and safe even for kids under two.

But here’s the truth: deworming in crises isn’t just about giving pills. It’s about breaking cycles. A child with worms can’t focus in school. A mother with hookworm can’t work. A family with chronic diarrhea spends what little money they have on rice, not medicine. One treatment can change that. It’s not a cure-all. It won’t fix broken pipes or rebuild clinics. But while those things get fixed, deworming keeps people alive and functional. And that’s enough to keep hope moving.

What you’ll find below are real-world stories and practical guides on how these drugs are used when systems fail. You’ll see how albendazole and praziquantel are paired, how dosing changes for children versus adults, and why some communities avoid treatment—not because they don’t care, but because they’ve been let down before. This isn’t theory. It’s what happens when medicine meets chaos—and wins.