A study on positive school children as indicators of schistosomiasis status in their families
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A study on positive school children as indicators of schistosomiasis status in their families Amel Youssef Shehab1 • Amal Farahat Allam1 • Heba Elhadad1 • Mohammed Shawki Shoughy1 • Esraa Abdelhamid Moneer2 • Hoda Fahmy Farag1
Received: 7 October 2020 / Accepted: 7 November 2020 Ó Indian Society for Parasitology 2020
Abstract This study aimed to evaluate schistosomiasis positive school children as indicators of infection in their families. Four hundred and sixteen stool samples of children from two primary schools were examined microscopically for Schistosoma mansoni (S. mansoni) after Kato–Katz. Equal numbers from families of schistosomiasis positive and negative school children were examined by Kato–Katz. Circulating cathodic antigen (CCA) cassette test was performed on 100 Kato–Katz negative children to detect missed S. mansoni cases if any. S. mansoni infection rates among the primary school children were 15.3% and 1.6% in high and low prevalence schools respectively. Sixty five percent of school children had light intensity infection. Family members were either negative or exhibited a prevalence rate as low as 5–6% whether related to positive or negative children. A higher infection rate of S. mansoni was detected by the CCA test compared to the Kato–Katz. Conclusively, children can be good indicators of their particular families in areas of limited resources and low endemicity. Efforts are required to permit large scale use of CCA cassette test. Keywords Schistosomiasis Kato–Katz CCA cassette test
Introduction Schistosomiasis is considered one of the neglected tropical diseases, affecting approximately 200 million people worldwide. Despite implementing control measures, it is still one of several diseases that spread in conditions of poverty (WHO 2013, 2014). The overall prevalence of schistosomiasis in Egypt fell down to \ 3% as a consequence of effective control programs, however, there are still hot spot transmission foci; Kafr El-Sheikh is one of these areas (Elmorshedy et al. 2015). For optimal design of schistosomiasis control programs, and for evaluation of their progress, it is essential to gain baseline information on the true prevalence estimate (Toor et al. 2018a). Accurate diagnosis is the key to adequate patient management and for monitoring control measures (Weerakoon et al. 2015; Toor et al. 2018b). Primary school children constitute a population category that plays an important role in transmission. Besides, they are easy to reach during epidemiological studies (Hajissa et al. 2018; Sacolo et al. 2018). The objective of the present study was to investigate whether positive school children can be an indicator for the identification of infection in their families.
Subjects and methods & Amel Youssef Shehab [email protected] 1
Department of Parasitology, Medical Research Institute, University of Alexandria, 165 El Horreya Avenue, El Hadara, Alexandria, Egypt
2
Department of Medical Laboratory, Faculty of Allied Medical Sciences, Pharos University, Alexandria, E
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