Prevalence and correlations of schistosomiasis mansoni and schistosomiasis haematobium among humans and intermediate snail hosts: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Infectious Diseases of Poverty·
- DOI
- 10.1186/s40249-024-01233-0
- PMID
- 39218903
- PMCID
- PMC11367875
- OpenAlex
- W4402130695
- Study type
- Systematic review
- Publisher
- Springer Science and Business Media LLC
- Article type
- journal-article
- Integrity
- current
Why this research matters now
With expanded preventive chemotherapy targets now including all age groups at risk, and a gap between available praziquantel supply and demand, the demonstrated correlation between snail and human infection rates suggests that snail surveillance could serve as a complementary tool for rapid community-level endemicity assessment. The persistent high prevalence in endemic areas underscores the need for integrated control strategies.
Structured evidence summary
Research question
This systematic review and meta-analysis examined whether infection rates in intermediate snail hosts correlate with human schistosomiasis prevalence, to evaluate whether snail surveillance could guide community-level chemotherapy decisions in resource-constrained settings.
Study design
Systematic review and meta-analysis of 47 publications comprising 59 field investigations published between January 1991 and December 2022. A random-effects model was used to calculate pooled prevalence estimates, with heterogeneity assessed by I-squared statistic and correlation and regression analysis to explore the relationship between human and snail infection rates.
Population and setting
Human populations and intermediate snail hosts (Biomphalaria spp. for S. mansoni and Bulinus spp. for S. haematobium) in schistosomiasis-endemic areas, with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa, which harbors 95% of the global disease burden.
Main findings
The pooled prevalence of schistosomiasis in humans was 27.5% (95% CI: 24.0-31.1%), with S. mansoni at 25.6% and S. haematobium at 28.8%. Overall snail infection rate was 8.6% (95% CI: 7.7-9.4%), with Biomphalaria spp. at 12.1% and Bulinus spp. at 6.9%. A significant positive correlation (coefficient 0.3, 95% CI: 0.01-0.5%, P<0.05) was found between human and snail infection prevalence for both schistosome species.
Public-health relevance
With expanded preventive chemotherapy targets now including all age groups at risk, and a gap between available praziquantel supply and demand, the demonstrated correlation between snail and human infection rates suggests that snail surveillance could serve as a complementary tool for rapid community-level endemicity assessment. The persistent high prevalence in endemic areas underscores the need for integrated control strategies.
Important limitations
This summary is limited to the supplied single-article abstract and bibliographic metadata. The abstract does not specify quality assessment methods for included studies, details of the heterogeneity observed (I² values), or whether the correlation strength varied by geographic region or transmission intensity. The original paper is required for decision-grade interpretation of these findings.
GIDS interpretation
The article is indexed under Schistosomiasis with topic links to Health policy and Surveillance, reflecting its focus on alternative endemicity assessment methods to guide treatment allocation. This classification enables discovery by users monitoring control program implementation and resource allocation strategies in endemic settings.
Related GIDS surveillance
Literature context does not validate, explain, or change a surveillance signal. Exact and contextual relationships are shown separately.
Evidence relationships
This article has 6 auditable classifier relationships to diseases, places, topics, and study design.