Performance Evaluation of Rapid Test for Schistosoma Mansoni among School Aged Children in Mwanga District Council, Kilimanjaro Tanzania

TL;DR

The study evaluated the effectiveness of a rapid test for detecting Schistosoma mansoni in children in Tanzania, finding it more accurate than traditional methods.

Contribution

The study provides new insights into the performance of the POC-CCA test for Schistosoma mansoni detection in a real-world setting.

Findings

The POC-CCA test detected 80.4% prevalence of Schistosoma mansoni compared to 7.3% with the formal-ether method.

Water source was significantly associated with Schistosoma mansoni prevalence.

Deworming projects may have reduced infection rates, but poor hygiene still poses risks.

Abstract

Schistosomiasis is an acute and chronic tropical disease caused by trematodes of the genus Schistosoma. It is a disease of public health concern and mostly affects developing countries of the tropics. According to WHO burden of the disease is as high as 80-85%, principally in sub-Saharan Africa. Although the majority of the infection is often linked with morbidity, it also results in considerable death. The overall annual mortality rate might exceed 200,000 people in Africa due to different complications of urinary and intestinal Schistosomiasis. Children are at a greater risk of acquiring the infection as well as reinfection, and this might cause growth retardation, anemia and low school performance.

The study aimed at determining the prevalence of Schistosoma mansoni, associated factors and evaluating the performance of Point of Care Circulating Cathodic Antigen comparison (POC-CCA) against a routine method (formal Ether) of detection methods among school aged children at Mwanga District Council, Kilimanjaro Tanzania.

This was a cross sectional study conducted from April - June 2019 in Mwanga District Council. A minimum of 288 primary school children in Mwanga District were enrolled. Random sampling technique was used to select the participants. Interviews were conducted with study participants followed by single stool and urine sample collection. formal-ether concentration technique, urine dipstick and Point of Care Circulating Cathodic Antigen (POC-CCA) were used for stool and urine analysis. Data were entered and cleaned by using SPSS Version 20. Descriptive statistics were summarised using frequency and proportion for categorical variables and mean and standard dispersion for continuous variables. Logistic regression was used to identify independent factors associated with schistosomiasis. Any association with P value <.05 was considered significant.

A total of 288 participants were enrolled. The mean age of participants was 9.8 (±2.4) years. The prevalence of Schistosoma mansoni among the 288 students was 7.3% by formal ether method and 80.4% by POC-CCA. Social demographic characteristics, and hygiene practice assessed were not associated with Schistosoma mansoni in this study. Water source was statistically significantly associated with the prevalence of Schistosoma mansoni.

The prevalence of Schistosoma mansoni among school aged children is low by using formal-ether concentration technique (routine method). The annual projects of deworming might have helped decrease the endemicity of the infection. This is due to regular deworming project as recommended by WHO. Despite various efforts which are done to deworm, school aged children are still at risk of acquiring infection, due to poor hygienic practice especially from water sources.