Schistosomiasis

Assessing treatment needs for school-aged children and assisting Ministry of Health to develop an effective control programme

Understanding the basic pharmacology of praziquantel tailored to paediatric setting and developing a treatment access plan for this age class

Helping increase and sustain the scale-up of preventive chemotherapy campaigns in West and Central Africa

To strengthen the capacity of the 5 African university departments hosting the Malaria Capacity Development Consortium (MCDC) programme

Will providing enhanced MDA at the community level while achieving treatment coverage of 75% or greater in children (5-17) and adults substantially decrease S. mansoni infection in previously identified persistent hot-spot communities?  

Is molecular detection of schistosome infection (patent and pre-patent) in snails a useful tool for program managers as prevalence and intensity of infection in people approaches very low levels?

How do villages which do not show substantial decreases in the prevalence of schistosomiasis despite repeated, high coverage mass drug administration (persistent hot-spot villages) differ from villages which show substantial decrease in prevalence across various factors (declining prevalence villages)?

Economic evaluation of SCORE projects with priority given to elimination studies

To identify antigens that can be produced as recombinant proteins and to document elimination of schistosomiasis.

To identify antigens that differentiate between infections with Schistosoma mansoni and Schistosoma haematobium and that can be used in an ELISA, lateral flow assay or multiplex format.

Rigorous assessment of the efficacy of (multiple) doses with Praziquantel in the treatment of S. mansoni infections using standard and novel highly sensitive diagnostic tools.