Achieving Elimination as a Public Health Problem for Schistosoma mansoni and S. haematobium: When Is Community-Wide Treatment Required?
Toor, Jaspreet;
Rollinson, David;
Turner, Hugo C;
Gouvras, Anouk;
King, Charles H;
Medley, Graham F;
Hollingsworth, T Déirdre;
Anderson, Roy M;
(2019)
Achieving Elimination as a Public Health Problem for Schistosoma mansoni and S. haematobium: When Is Community-Wide Treatment Required?
The Journal of infectious diseases, 221 (Suppl ).
S525-S530.
ISSN 0022-1899
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1093/infdis/jiz609
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The World Health Organization (WHO) has set elimination as a public health problem (EPHP) as a goal for schistosomiasis. As the WHO treatment guidelines for schistosomiasis are currently under revision, we investigate whether school-based or community-wide treatment strategies are required for achieving the EPHP goal. In low- to moderate-transmission settings with good school enrolment, we find that school-based treatment is sufficient for achieving EPHP. However, community-wide treatment is projected to be necessary in certain high-transmission settings as well as settings with low school enrolment. Hence, the optimal treatment strategy depends on setting-specific factors such as the species present, prevalence prior to treatment, and the age profile of infection.