Albendazole/Pyrantel Embonate

This is a community-based intervention study which will be undertaken at Mirpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh. Participants will be recruited from two age groups: a child cohort (age 12 to 18 months) and an adult cohort (age 18 to 45 years). The child cohort will consist of stunted children (length for age Z score, LAZ < -2), children who are at risk of stunting (length for age Z score <-1 to -2) and child controls. The adult cohort will consist of malnourished adult cases (Body Mass Index <18.5) and adult controls. After screening the participants for any organic diseases and application of inclusion/exclusion criteria, they will receive nutrition interventions. Participants eligible for study will be tested for potential bio markers of environmental enteropathy (stool, urine and serum) once before and once after the nutritional intervention. Participants who will fail to respond to nutritional therapy (measured by anthropometric assessment) will become candidates for upper gastrointestinal endoscopy with biopsy. The study will include duodenal biopsies from a control group of children from University of Virginia Hospital in Charlottesville, Virginia who will undergo upper GI endoscopy as part of their clinical care as per the standard clinical protocol followed at the hospital. Adult controls (BMI > 18.5) for endoscopy will be collected from international centre for diarrhoeal disease research,Bangladesh staff clinic, Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH), Dhaka and Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University (BSMMU), Dhaka.