Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2016 May 26:16:229.
doi: 10.1186/s12879-016-1575-2.

Gaining and sustaining schistosomiasis control: study protocol and baseline data prior to different treatment strategies in five African countries

Amara E Ezeamama  1 , Chun-La He  2 , Ye Shen  2 , Xiao-Ping Yin  2 , Sue C Binder  3 , Carl H Campbell Jr  3 , Stephen Rathbun  2 , Christopher C Whalen  2 , Eliézer K N'Goran  4   5 , Jürg Utzinger  6   7 , Annette Olsen  8 , Pascal Magnussen  8 , Safari Kinung'hi  9 , Alan Fenwick  10 , Anna Phillips  10 , Josefo Ferro  11 , Diana M S Karanja  12 , Pauline N M Mwinzi  12 , Susan Montgomery  13 , W Evan Secor  13 , Amina Hamidou  14 , Amadou Garba  14 , Charles H King  15 , Daniel G Colley  3   16
Affiliations

Gaining and sustaining schistosomiasis control: study protocol and baseline data prior to different treatment strategies in five African countries

Amara E Ezeamama et al. BMC Infect Dis. .

Abstract

Background: The Schistosomiasis Consortium for Operational Research and Evaluation (SCORE) was established in 2008 to answer strategic questions about schistosomiasis control. For programme managers, a high-priority question is: what are the most cost-effective strategies for delivering preventive chemotherapy (PCT) with praziquantel (PZQ)? This paper describes the process SCORE used to transform this question into a harmonized research protocol, the study design for answering this question, the village eligibility assessments and data resulting from the first year of the study.

Methods: Beginning in 2009, SCORE held a series of meetings to specify empirical questions and design studies related to different schedules of PCT for schistosomiasis control in communities with high (gaining control studies) and moderate (sustaining control studies) prevalence of Schistosoma infection among school-aged children. Seven studies are currently being implemented in five African countries. During the first year, villages were screened for eligibility, and data were collected on prevalence and intensity of infection prior to randomisation and the implementation of different schemes of PZQ intervention strategies.

Results: These studies of different treatment schedules with PZQ will provide the most comprehensive data thus far on the optimal frequency and continuity of PCT for schistosomiasis infection and morbidity control.

Conclusions: We expect that the study outcomes will provide data for decision-making for country programme managers and a rich resource of information to the schistosomiasis research community.

Trial registration: The trials are registered at International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial registry (identifiers: ISRCTN99401114 , ISRCTN14849830 , ISRCTN16755535 , ISRCTN14117624 , ISRCTN95819193 and ISRCTN32045736 ).

Keywords: Control; Côte d’Ivoire; Kenya; Mozambique; Niger; Praziquantel; Preventive chemotherapy; Schistosoma haematobium; Schistosoma mansoni; Schistosomiasis; Tanzania.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
a Study arms and timeline for the studies of gaining control of schistosomiasis in Africa. CWT, community-wide treatment; SBT, school-based treatment; Sm2, gaining control study in S. mansoni endemic villages; Sh2, gaining control study in S. haematobium endemic villages. b Study arms and timeline for the studies of sustaining control of schistosomiasis in Africa. SBT, school-based treatment; Sh1, sustaining control study in S. haematobium endemic villages; Sm1, sustaining control study in S. mansoni endemic villages
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Baseline infection prevalence and intensity for gaining control of schistosomiasis studies, by study arm. Figures depict box plots. Horizontal lines in box interiors indicate medians. Box lengths represent the interquartile range (i.e. amount of data between the 75th and 25th percentile), + signs in boxes represent mean infection intensity (in eggs per gram of faeces (for S. mansoni) or per 10 ml of urine (for S. haematobium)) or prevalence in the respective arms 1–6 and the whiskers represent the minimum and maximum infection prevalence or intensity. Sh2, gaining control study in S. haematobium villages; Sm2, gaining control study in S. mansoni endemic villages
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Infection prevalence and intensity for sustaining control of schistosomiasis studies, by study arm. Figures depict box plots. Horizontal lines in box interiors indicate medians. Box lengths represent the interquartile range (i.e. amount of data between the 75th and 25th percentile), + signs in boxes represent mean infection intensity (eggs per gram of faeces (for S. mansoni) or eggs per 10 ml of urine (for S. haematobium)) or prevalence in the respective arms 1–3 and the whiskers represent the minimum and maximum infection prevalence or intensity. Sh1, sustaining study in S. haematobium endemic villages; Sm1, sustaining study in S. mansoni endemic village
Fig. 4
Fig. 4
Revised study design for Niger. CWT, community-wide treatment; SBT, school-based treatment
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Colley DG. Morbidity control of schistosomiasis by mass drug administration: How can we do it best and what will it take to move on to elimination? Trop Med Health. 2014;42(2 Suppl):25–32. doi: 10.2149/tmh.2014-S04. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Coulibaly JT, Knopp S, N’Guessan NA, Silué KD, Fürst T, Lohourignon LK, et al. Accuracy of urine circulating cathodic antigen (CCA) test for Schistosoma mansoni diagnosis in different settings of Côte d’Ivoire. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2011;5(11):e1384. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0001384. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Colley DG, Binder S, Campbell C, King CH, Tchuem Tchuenté LA, N’Goran EK, et al. A five-country evaluation of a point-of-care circulating cathodic antigen urine assay for the prevalence of Schistosoma mansoni. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2013;88(3):426–32. doi: 10.4269/ajtmh.12-0639. - DOI - PMC - PubMed
    1. Stothard JR, Stanton MC, Bustinduy AL, Sousa-Figueiredo JC, Van Dam GJ, Betson M, et al. Diagnostics for schistosomiasis in Africa and Arabia: a review of present options in control and future needs for elimination. Parasitology. 2014;141(14):1947–61. doi: 10.1017/S0031182014001152. - DOI - PubMed
    1. Knopp S, Corstjens PL, Koukounari A, Cercamondi CI, Ame SM, Ali SM, et al. Sensitivity and specificity of a urine circulating anodic antigen test for the diagnosis of Schistosoma haematobium in low endemic settings. PLoS Negl Trop Dis. 2015;9(5):e0003752. doi: 10.1371/journal.pntd.0003752. - DOI - PMC - PubMed