Active clinical trials for "Schistosomiasis mansoni"

Groups of 3 or 7 volunteers will be exposed to a predetermined number of female Schistosoma mansoni cercariae until 10 volunteers are found infected.

A group of 24 healthy volunteers are challenged one or three times with 20 male Schistosoma mansoni cercariae to investigate whether this leads to protection and to identify potential correlates of protection

The aim of this study is to assess the impact of Schistosoma mansoni infection and its treatment on genital immunology and HIV susceptibility in Ugandan women.

In this study, it is hypothesized that helminth infections modulate immune responses against HIV-1 infection resulting into increased HIV-1 multiplication, faster progression to AIDS and increased episodes of AIDS-related opportunistic infections. Furthermore, the effect of helminth infections on progression of HIV-1 infection is dependent on helminth infection intensity, host background immunity, nutritional status, demographic factors and socio-economic status. Also, treatment of helminth infections using praziquantel and albendazole among HIV-1 infected individuals will lead to reduction in HIV-1 viral loads, improvement of CD4+ counts, CD4+/CD8+ ratio and Hb levels, improved weight gain and reduction of episodes of HIV-1 related opportunistic infections. In addition, HIV-1 infection is associated with poor anthelminthic treatment outcome as compared to non-HIV infected individuals

Previous research undertaken among adults in high endemic districts of Busia, Adjumani, Moyo and Nebbi reported unwillingness to take preventive treatment. A particular study conducted in primary schools of Jinja district showed that only 30% of school children took praziquantel during the 2011 Mass Drug Administration (MDA). Fear of side effects of praziquantel, lack of knowledge about schistosomiasis transmission and prevention and lack of teacher support were some of the major factors associated with the low uptake. Similar reasons for non-uptake have been reported elsewhere. Thus, measures are needed to increase uptake of Mass Drug Administration (MDA) in Uganda. There is no doubt that health education facilitates a better understanding of the obvious risks to health, including the knowledge of preventing parasitic infections among primary school children. Better compliance to treatment for schistosomiasis among school children can be achieved through implementing carefully designed programs involving face to face education methods. Increasing knowledge about schistosomiasis transmission and prevention and implementing measures to mitigate the side effects attributable to praziquantel, such as providing a snack prior to drug administration may improve uptake of the drug among school children. Hypothesis- Provision of a pre-treatment snack is effective in improving uptake of preventive treatment for intestinal schistosomiasis among primary school children.

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the use of a urine test strip in diagnose schistosoma mansoni in areas of Kenya where the rate of infections are low. The hypothesis is that the urine strip test is a superior tool to the conventional parasitological tools used to diagnose schistosomiasis mansoni infections in area where there is low transmission