Use of fecal occult blood tests as epidemiologic indicators of morbidity associated with intestinal schistosomiasis during preventive chemotherapy in young children.

Abstract

There is a need for field-applicable markers to assess morbidity associated with intestinal schistosomiasis, especially in the context of preventive chemotherapy in young children. We investigated whether fecal occult blood (FOB) point-of-care tests could be used to assess intestinal pathology over a 12-month period in a cohort of 382 children (< 5 years of age). We found a strong association between egg-patent schistosomiasis and FOB at baseline (odds ratio [OR] = 3.1, P < 0.0001), 6 months (OR = 3.4, P < 0.0001), and 12 months (OR = 3.5, P < 0.0001), despite repeated chemotherapy. There were tendencies for prevalence of FOB to decrease in children who became egg negative and increase in those who became egg positive. Our results demonstrate overt disease in children less than five years of age. We therefore propose that FOB is useful for assessing dynamics of intestinal morbidity in young children at the community level and monitoring changes in morbidity after mass chemotherapy.

• Authors: Martha Betson, José Carlos Sousa-Figueiredo, Narcis B Kabatereine, J Russell Stothard
• Journal: The American journal of tropical medicine and hygiene (Am J Trop Med Hyg) Vol. 87 Issue 4 Pg. 694-700 (Oct 2012) ISSN: 1476-1645 [Electronic] United States
• PMID: 22927499 (Publication Type: Journal Article, Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't)

Chemical References

• Anthelmintics
• Praziquantel

Topics

• Animals
• Anthelmintics (therapeutic use)
• Child, Preschool
• Feces (parasitology)
• Female
• Humans
• Infant
• Male
• Morbidity
• Occult Blood
• Parasite Egg Count
• Point-of-Care Systems
• Praziquantel (therapeutic use)
• Prevalence
• Schistosoma mansoni (drug effects, growth & development, isolation & purification)
• Schistosomiasis mansoni (epidemiology, parasitology, pathology, prevention & control)
• Uganda (epidemiology)