Promise and Risks of Newborn Mass Drug Administration.

Abstract

Global mortality among children younger than 5 years of age has decreased since 1990, yet it remains unacceptably high in low- and middle-income countries, particularly in the World Health Organization's African region.¹ Infectious diseases are a leading cause of early childhood mortality, and one approach to reducing their burden in high-prevalence areas is mass drug administration. Conceptually distinct from antimicrobial administration targeted to a specific pathogen, risk group, or disease mechanism,² mass drug administration has been successful in select cases, notably in controlling helminthic diseases.³.