Schistosomiasis in pre-school-age children and their mothers in Chikhwawa district,Malawi with notes on characterization of schistosomes and snails

Background: to complement ongoing schistosomiasis control within national control programmes (ncps) that administer praziquantel to school-age children,assessing the risk and extent of schistosomiasis in pre-school-age children (psac) is important. methods. in june 2012,schistosomiasis in chikhwawa district,malawi was assessed across 12 villages examining pre-school-age children (psac) and their mothers by serological and parasitological diagnosis,as supplemented with urine-antigen and questionnaire-interview methods. urinary tract morbidity was inferred by haematuria and albuminuria assays. results: in total,49.5% (ci95 42.6-56.4) of 208 psac and 94.5% (ci95 90.9-98.1) of 165 mothers were seropositive for schistosomiasis,in 2 villages seroprevalence exceeded 75% in psac. egg-patent urogenital and intestinal schistosomiasis was observed; 17.7% (ci95 12.4-23.2) of psac and 45.1% (ci95 37.4-52.8) of mothers having active schistosomiasis by parasitological and urine-antigen testing combined. psac often had extensive daily water contact and many (∼25%) had haematuria and albuminuria. as eggs with an atypical morphology of schistosoma haematobium were observed,a general selection of schistosome eggs was characterized by dna barcoding,finding group i s. haematobium and group iv and v s. mansoni. malacological surveys encountered several populations of bulinus globosus but failed to find biomphalaria. conclusions: both psac and their mothers appear to be at significant risk of schistosomiasis and should be considered for treatment within the ncp of malawi. © 2014 poole et al.; licensee biomed central ltd.