Impact of Single Dose Praziquantel Treatment on Schistosoma haematobium Infection among School Children in an Endemic Nigerian Community.

Impact of Single Dose Praziquantel Treatment on Schistosoma haematobium Infection among School Children in an Endemic Nigerian Community. Korean J Parasitol. 2018 Dec;56(6):577-581 Authors: Adewale B, Mafe MA, Sulyman MA, Idowu ET, Ajayi MB, Akande DO, Mckerrow JH, Balogun EO Abstract Schistosomiasis is prevalent in Nigeria, and the foremost pathogen is Schistosoma haematobium, which affects about 29 million people. Single dose of the drug praziquantel is often recommended for treatment but the efficacy has not been documented in certain regions. Therefore, this study was designed to assess the impact of single dose praziquantel treatment on S. haematobium infection among school children in an endemic community of South-Western Nigeria. Urine samples were collected from 434 school children and 10 ml was filtered through Nucleopore filter paper before examination for egg outputs by microscopy. The prevalence was 24.9% at pre-treatment. There was no statistically significant difference for the prevalence of infection between males (14.7%) and females (10.2%), although the mean egg count for the females (9.87) was significantly more (P < 0.05) than the males (6.06). At 6 and 12 months post-treatment there was 74.4% and 86.4% reduction in the mean egg count, respectively. Interestingly, an increased prevalence of infection from 2.1% at 6 months to 7.7% at 12 months post-treatment was observed, nonetheless the mean egg count was re...
Source: Korean Journal of Parasitology - Category: Parasitology Tags: Korean J Parasitol Source Type: research