TY - JOUR
T1 - Schistosomiasis elimination
T2 - Beginning of the end or a continued March on a trodden path
AU - Bergquist, Robert
AU - Gray, Darren J.
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2019 by the author.
PY - 2019/5/5
Y1 - 2019/5/5
N2 - In spite of spectacular progress towards the goal of elimination of schistosomiasis, particularly in China but also in other areas, research gaps and outstanding issues remain. Although expectations of achieving elimination of this disease have never been greater, all constraints have not been swept aside. Indeed, there are some formidable obstacles, such as insufficient amounts of drugs to treat everybody and still limited use of high-sensitive diagnostic techniques, both for the definitive and the intermediate hosts, which indicate that prevalence is considerably underrated in well-controlled areas. Elimination will be difficult to achieve without a broad approach, including a stronger focus on transmission, better diagnostics and the establishment of a reliable survey system activating a rapid response when called for. Importantly, awareness of the crucial importance of transmission has been revived resulting in renewed interest in snail control together with more emphasis on health education and sanitation. The papers collected in this special issue entitled 'Prospects for Schistosomiasis Elimination' reflect these issues and we are particularly pleased to note that some also discuss the crucial question when to declare a country free of schistosomiasis and present techniques that together create an approach that can show unequivocally when interruption of transmission has been achieved.
AB - In spite of spectacular progress towards the goal of elimination of schistosomiasis, particularly in China but also in other areas, research gaps and outstanding issues remain. Although expectations of achieving elimination of this disease have never been greater, all constraints have not been swept aside. Indeed, there are some formidable obstacles, such as insufficient amounts of drugs to treat everybody and still limited use of high-sensitive diagnostic techniques, both for the definitive and the intermediate hosts, which indicate that prevalence is considerably underrated in well-controlled areas. Elimination will be difficult to achieve without a broad approach, including a stronger focus on transmission, better diagnostics and the establishment of a reliable survey system activating a rapid response when called for. Importantly, awareness of the crucial importance of transmission has been revived resulting in renewed interest in snail control together with more emphasis on health education and sanitation. The papers collected in this special issue entitled 'Prospects for Schistosomiasis Elimination' reflect these issues and we are particularly pleased to note that some also discuss the crucial question when to declare a country free of schistosomiasis and present techniques that together create an approach that can show unequivocally when interruption of transmission has been achieved.
KW - Chemotherapy
KW - Health education
KW - High-sensitivity diagnostics
KW - Sanitation
KW - Schistosomiasis elimination
KW - Snail control
KW - Vaccine development
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85072204557&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.3390/tropicalmed4020076
DO - 10.3390/tropicalmed4020076
M3 - Review article
SN - 2414-6366
VL - 4
JO - Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease
JF - Tropical Medicine and Infectious Disease
IS - 2
M1 - 76
ER -