Supporting Johnson & Johnson in fighting intestinal parasites

In several regions across the globe, intestinal parasites cause morbidity and malnutrition, especially among children. Johnson & Johnson's Global Public Health  team is battling parasite infection on a global scale through mass drug administration.

Beyond drug administration and donations, Johnson & Johnson is working with partners as Etteplan to identify sustainable solutions to combat intestinal worms longer term. These include improving diagnostics for STH and developing national monitoring and evaluation frameworks to allow for better data collection, more informed decision-making, and ultimately optimized therapeutic interventions that have the potential to eliminate intestinal worms in endemic countries. 

New methods for screening and analysis increase the effectiveness of the mass drug administration. Etteplan's solution improves the counting of the parasite eggs in the sample by automating the imaging and allowing artificial intelligence to do the counting and classification of parasites. Previously this was done manually with microscopes and counter clickers. The new method is an important step towards increasing the scale, speed, and reliability of testing procedures.