Washington, May 1 (IANS): A team of researchers has developed the worm index, which they found to have a strong association with a nation's human development index.

With the Millennium Development Goals established by the UN coming to an end in 2015, experts have developed a new tool to show why neglected tropical diseases should be an essential component of these goals.

Such tropical diseases are considered the most common infections of the world's poor.

Now, work is on to evolve new Sustainable Development Goals that will entail a set of targets for the future of international development.

The team has used World Health Organization (WHO) data for the number people at risk of parasitic worm infections in each of the largest nations and comparing this number to each nation's population.

"Through this paper, we have shown how the major neglected tropical diseases, which include intestinal worm infections, schistosomiasis and lymphatic filariasis, are intimately tied to human development," said Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, Texas.

"We found a very tight association between the worm index of a country and the human development index. The higher the worm index, the lower the human development index," Hotez noted.

Parasitic worm infections affect millions of people and can cause long-term, chronic and disabling diseases.

"Because decreased human development is related to increased burden of parasitic worm infections, we recommend that serious consideration should be given to parasitic worm infections and other neglected tropical diseases when trying to attain goals that will ultimately improve human development; for example, when implementing the sustainable development goals," said Jennifer R. Herricks, postdoctoral fellow at Baylor College of Medicine.

The study appeared in Plos Neglected Tropical Diseases.