Background Schistosomiasis is a devastating parasitic disease. The mainstay of schistosomiasis control is by praziquantel treatment. The study aimed to determine benefits of annual chemotherapy of schistosomiasis on development of protective immunity in school children in a selected endemic rural area in Zimbabwe. Methods Urine specimens from 212 school children (7–13 years) were collected and examined to determine prevalence, intensity and reinfection of S.haematobium at baseline, 6 weeks and 2 years following annual rounds of praziquantel treatment . Blood samples from the participants were assayed for total and S. haematobium (Sh13)-specific antibodies before and 2 years after annual rounds of treatment. Results Annual treatment reduced the prevalence of S. haematobium infection ( p < 0.05) from 23.1% at baseline to 0.47% after 2 years. Overall cure rate was 97.8%. Intensity of infection declined (p < 0.05) from 15.9 eggs/10 ml urine at baseline to 2 eggs/10 ml urine. After two years, overall rate of reinfection was 0.96%. At baseline, total IgG4 was higher in S. haematobium -infected children ( p = 0.042) ,while all other immunoglobulins were within normal ranges. There was an increase in total IgG2 ( p = 0.044) levels and a decrease in total IgG4 ( p = 0.031) levels 2 years post-treatment; and no significant changes in other total immunoglobulins. Schistosoma -infected children at baseline showed an increase in anti- Sh 13 IgG1 ( p = 0.005) and a decrease in Sh 13 IgG4 levels ( p = 0.012) following treatment. Conclusion Annual praziquantel treatment delivered to school children over 2 years significantly reduce prevalence, intensity of infection and reinfection of S. haematobium infection. Treatment was also observed to cause a reduction in schistosome-specific blocking IgG4 and an increase in Schistosoma -specific protecting IgG1. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (10.1186/s12879-019-3811-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

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Antiretroviral therapy inhibits HIV replication, maintains health, and preserves life. However, both antiretroviral therapy and HIV infection have been reported to have short- and long-term effects on bone metabolism. A cross-sectional study was performed to compare serum bone profiles in HIV positive patients on highly active antiretroviral therapy and compare them to therapy-naïve patients. Serum levels of calcium, magnesium, phosphate, and albumin were measured in 40 female participants on highly active antiretroviral therapy, recruited sequentially from Parirenyatwa Opportunistic Infections Clinic, Harare, Zimbabwe. The 40 women were matched for age with 40 antiretroviral therapy-naïve women. Magnesium, phosphate, and albumin levels were significantly higher in the therapy-naïve than in therapy-experienced patients. There was no statistically significant difference in calcium levels of the two groups of women. Evidence from this study suggests that highly active antiretroviral therapy lowers levels of magnesium, phosphate, and albumin but has no effect on levels of serum calcium.

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Schistosomiasis is a waterborne disease whose life cycle involves freshwater sources conducive for the survival and reproduction of aquatic snails that form a connective link between man and water in the life cycle and transmission of schistosomiasis. The African region has network of rivers with freshwater suggesting the presence of schistosomiasis and difficulty to control. Some communities, due to socioeconomic challenges, have inadequate sanitation and water supply; use of bush toilets for excretion is commonly practiced. These conditions in Africa also promote transmission of soil-transmitted helminthiasis. The World Health Organization (WHO), in response to the public health and socioeconomic impact of neglected tropical diseases, is coordinating strategies for the control and elimination of the diseases including schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis. As one of the milestones, mapping of neglected tropical diseases in the African region has been prioritized for the implementation of control strategies. In countries where mapping has been completed, WHO and its partners are supplying medicines required for annual mass treatment for preventive chemotherapy and encourage countries to take ownership in implementing complementary strategies for morbidity control, elimination and eradication of country-specific neglected tropical diseases. The mainstay of helminthiasis control is preventive chemotherapy, targeting school age children to prevent morbidity and development of pathological manifestations, including urogenital schistosomiasis that is understood to contribute to HIV transmission. Vaccines are still to be discovered and designed, with many possible antigen candidates, but however the immune responses are still to be fully understood. There is need to understand the subtle link between each component of the immune responses and the host immunogenetics impacting on the translated immunological response of cytokines that are delicately controlled for cellular immunity and antibody production. Currently, preventive chemotherapy treatment is the only

Objective: There is an increased risk of cases of direct and indirect morbidities as a result of stimulation of tissue-destructive inflammation caused by Schistosoma haematobium infection, hence the need to determine the levels of inflammatory markers in Schistosoma haematobium infected children and also determine the effect of repeated annual mass treatment on levels of interleukin-6 and acute phase proteins. Methodology: Urine specimens from 212 school children were collected and examined to determine prevalence of Schistosoma haematobium at baseline and 2 years following annual rounds of praziquantel treatment. Levels of 4 acute phase proteins were measured from serum samples from the participants using the magnetic bead-based immuno-assays at baseline and 2 years following praziquantel treatment. Sandwich enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay was used to determine levels of interleukin-6. Results: The overall pre-treatment prevalence of Schistosoma haematobium infection was 23.1% at baseline and 0.47% after 2 years of annual treatments. Schistosoma haematobium infected children had marginally higher levels of procalcitonin and tissue plasminogen activator before treatment though the difference of all three was not significant p>0.05 using Mann-Whitney non-parametric U test. Levels of ferritin and fibrinogen were lower in Schistosoma haematobium infected children before treatment, however the difference was also not significant p>0.05 using Mann-Whitney test. There was no association between infection status or interleukin-6 and the levels acute phase proteins p>0.05 for all acute phase proteins using the Mann-Whitney U test. Discussion and Conclusion: Findings from this study suggest no bearing of Schistosoma haematobium infection status on level of acute phase proteins before and after annual treatment with praziquantel. The extent of inflammation cannot be determined using ferritin, tissue plasminogen activator and fibrinogen. Levels of interleukin-6 did not have any bearing on levels of acute phase proteins. There is a need to explore other acute phase proteins as inflammatory markers in Schistosoma haematobium infection.

The presence of Salmonella in food products and emergence of antibiotic resistance are the major challenges facing public health policies. A total of 2749 crocodile meat samples obtained from the Central Veterinary Laboratories in Zimbabwe were screened for Salmonella specieswere collected from three Zimbabwean commercial farms between the year 2012 and 2019 for a retrospective observational study to determine the prevalence and magnitude of antibiotics resistant Salmonella species in crocodile meat. The isolation of Salmonella was in accordance with the ISO 6579:2002 and the antibiotic susceptibility testing was carried out based on Clinical and Laboratory Standard Institute’s recommendations by means of the Kirby-Bauer disk diffusion method. SILAB Database was used to determine the prevalence of Salmonella species. Prevalence was stratified by year and farms. Twenty Salmonella isolates were identified using biochemical tests, and 15 were confirmed by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Antimicrobial susceptibility profiles of the confirmed Salmonella isolates were examined using 14 antibiotics. The overall prevalence of Salmonella species in crocodile meat samples was 0.5%. The prevalence of Salmonella species ranged from 0.04% to 0.44% in the crocodile meat samples and annual prevalence ranged from 0.01% to 1%. The highest prevalence of Salmonella (4.4%) was recorded in the year 2012. Salmonella isolates from one of the three tested farms were resistant to Erythromycin (73.33%), Ampicillin (80%), and Penicillin G (100%). Generally, Salmonella isolates displayed lower resistance to Cefepime, Ceftriaxone, Amikacin, Tetracycline, Ertapenem, Florfenicol, and Erythromycin (0-53.33%) whereas all Salmonella isolates showed susceptibility to Cefepime, Ceftriaxone, Ertapenem, and Florfenicol. Although the study indicates low prevalence of Salmonella species in crocodile meat, there is a need for strict implementation of Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point (HACCP) to reduce contamination rates in meat and its products