Article
School-based and community-based actions for scaling-up diagnosis and treatment of schistosomiasis toward its elimination in an endemic area of Brazil
Registro en:
FAVRE, Tereza; et al. School-based and community-based actions for scaling-up diagnosis and treatment of schistosomiasis toward its elimination in an endemic area of Brazil. Acta Tropica, v.149, p.155-162, Sept. 2015.
0001-706X
10.1016/j.actatropica.2015.04.024
1873-6254
Autor
Favre, Tereza C.
Pereira, Ana Paula B.
Beck, Lilian C. N. H.
Galvão, Aline F.
Pieri, Otávio S.
Resumen
This study evaluated a school-based and a community-based scheme for diagnosis, treatment and followup
of schistosomiasis mansoni among school-aged children in views of resolution CD49.R19 of the Pan
American Health Organization toward the elimination of schistosomiasis as a public health problem in
the Americas and subsequent commitments endorsed by the Brazilian government. The school-aged
population from a representative municipality of the endemic area of Northeastern Brazil was randomly
allocated to either school-based or community-based scheme. The two schemes were compared with
regard to coverage of diagnosis by the Kato–Katz method (KK) at baseline, treatment of the positives for
Schistosoma mansoni with praziquantel, treatment of the positives for soil-transmitted helminthes (STH)
with mebendazole, as well as follow-up of treatment efficacy and reinfection assessed respectively at four
and 12 months after treatment. Nutritional status of the positives for S. mansoni was assessed at baseline
and re-assessed at 12 months after treatment. Coverage of diagnosis and treatment was satisfactory
(>75%) in both schemes. Diagnosis coverage at baseline and at 12 months was significantly higher in the
community scheme, whereas treatment coverage did not differ significantly between the two schemes
either at baseline or at 12 months. The number of children covered per day was significantly higher in
the schools than in the community at baseline but not at follow-up, when daily coverage was higher in
the community. With regard to S. mansoni, overall treatment efficacy rate at four months was 90.8%, and
reinfection rate at 12 months was 21.6%. For STH, overall treatment efficacy was 45.4% and reinfection,
32.8%. The nutritional status of the positives for S. mansoni at baseline did not change significantly at 12
months post-treatment. Actions targeted at this particularly vulnerable high-risk group should combine
school-based and community-based interventions as well as preventivemeasures to reduce transmission.