Helminths are parasitic nematodes and trematodes, grouped together because of morphological similarities and commonalities in the effects infections have on hosts. These include complications such as anemia and biasing of immune responses, which can alter susceptibility for other diseases. For pregnant women, these complications might have implications for pregnancy outcomes or neonatal health. Here, I review studies of helminth infections during pregnancy, and ask the following questions: Do helminths affect maternal health or pregnancy outcomes? Are there consequences of maternal infection for infants? What are the effects of antihelminth treatment during pregnancy? The evidence suggests that the answers to these questions depend on the particular helminth species in question, maternal nutritional status, and the presence or absence of comorbid infection with other species, such as malaria. Moreover, there may also be unexpected consequences of treatment, as maternal infections can affect the priming of infant immune systems, with potential effects on infants later in life. These complex interactions suggest that a consideration of the evolutionary history of human-helminth interactions, as well as the ecological context of infections, can help to clarify an understanding of these host-parasite interactions and provide direction for future investigations.
This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 14. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 27 November 2020.
All research outputs
#3,391,833
of 34,644,748 outputs
Outputs from International Journal of Women's Health
#190
of 1,150 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#42,119
of 338,673 outputs
Outputs of similar age from International Journal of Women's Health
#5
of 17 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 34,644,748 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 90th percentile: it's in the top 10% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,150 research outputs from this source. They typically receive a lot more attention than average, with a mean Attention Score of 15.1. This one has done well, scoring higher than 83% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 338,673 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done well, scoring higher than 87% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 17 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has gotten more attention than average, scoring higher than 70% of its contemporaries.
