Projecting the Long-Term Impact of School- or Community-Based Mass-Treatment Interventions for Control of Schistosoma Infection
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases·
- DOI
- 10.1371/journal.pntd.0001903
- PMID
- 23166850
- PMCID
- PMC3499404
- OpenAlex
- W1979452865
- Study type
- Journal article
- Publisher
- Public Library of Science (PLoS)
- Article type
- journal-article
- Integrity
- current
Why this research matters now
The projections indicate that treatment frequency, continuity, adherence, and local transmission conditions may affect the duration of community-level prevalence suppression. The abstract describes ongoing surveillance and locally targeted intervention as components of the proposed control approach, but this evidence does not establish effectiveness in real-world programs.
Structured evidence summary
Research question
The study examined how different school- or community-based treatment schedules might affect long-term suppression of Schistosoma infection compared with the 2006 WHO control strategy.
Study design
The authors calibrated network models of village-level Schistosoma transmission using available field data. They projected outcomes for six intervention programs and assessed how long prevalence remained below 10% in 10 modeled villages.
Population and setting
The analysis represented community and school-age treatment programs in 10 modeled villages. The supplied abstract does not identify the geographic locations or provide individual-level participant characteristics.
Main findings
All modeled strategies with four annual treatments reduced community prevalence below 10%, whereas schedules with yearly treatment gaps did so in only half of the communities. After a more intensive four-year annual program, prevalence suppression lasted 7 to 10 years in half of the villages but zero to four years in five higher-risk villages. Under the modeled 60% to 70% adherence level, the current WHO strategy was projected to require at least six years to achieve effective prevalence suppression.
Public-health relevance
The projections indicate that treatment frequency, continuity, adherence, and local transmission conditions may affect the duration of community-level prevalence suppression. The abstract describes ongoing surveillance and locally targeted intervention as components of the proposed control approach, but this evidence does not establish effectiveness in real-world programs.
Important limitations
The findings are model-based projections calibrated with available field data rather than direct results from a completed comparative intervention trial. The projections cover 10 modeled villages and depend on assumptions including treatment adherence and modeled transmission risk. This summary is limited to the supplied single-article abstract and metadata; the original paper is required for decision-grade interpretation.
GIDS interpretation
The article is discoverable in the supplied metadata under schistosomiasis, treatment, transmission dynamics, climate and environment, and surveillance. It provides modeled intervention context only and does not confirm or characterize a live surveillance signal.
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 10 auditable classifier relationships to diseases, places, topics, and study design.