Introduction
helminths
Soil-transmitted helminths (STHs; Several different microscopy-based methods (e.g., Kato-Katz thick smear (KK), Mini-FLOTAC, McMaster and FECPAKMaking an evidence-based choice about which FEC method to use in STH control programs remains non-trivial, particularly when a decision-making framework is intended to be applied to a wide range of epidemiological settings. This is because the suitability and the cost of different survey designs and diagnostic techniques will vary by epidemiological setting [We aim to provide a general framework for evidence-based recommendations for cost-efficient decision-making in large-scale STH deworming programs based on FEC methods, using monitoring of therapeutic drug efficacy as a case study. To this end, we performed an in-depth analysis of the operational costs to process one sample for three FEC methods (KK, Mini-FLOTAC and FECPAK