Advances in the Diagnosis of Human Schistosomiasis

Abstract

SUMMARY Schistosomiasis is a major neglected tropical disease that afflicts more than 240 million people, including many children and young adults, in the tropics and subtropics. The disease is characterized by chronic infections with significant residual morbidity and is of considerable public health importance, with substantial socioeconomic impacts on impoverished communities. Morbidity reduction and eventual elimination through integrated intervention measures are the focuses of current schistosomiasis control programs. Precise diagnosis of schistosome infections, in both mammalian and snail intermediate hosts, will play a pivotal role in achieving these goals. Nevertheless, despite extensive efforts over several decades, the search for sensitive and specific diagnostics for schistosomiasis is ongoing. Here we review the area, paying attention to earlier approaches but emphasizing recent developments in the search for new diagnostics for schistosomiasis with practical applications in the research laboratory, the clinic, and the field. Careful and rigorous validation of these assays and their cost-effectiveness will be needed, however, prior to their adoption in support of policy decisions for national public health programs aimed at the control and elimination of schistosomiasis.

Schistosomiasis of appendix with review of literature.

“…circulating cathodic antigen (CCA) and circulating anodic antigen (CAA) and schistosome DNA and RNA is proving to be a highly sensitive diagnostic approach. [9] Antihelmintic Praziquantel which acts on adult worms is in most common drug treating both urinary and gastrointestinal forms of the disease, and administered as a single dose. However, it's not effective against the immature, early schistosome stages.…”

Diagnostic Tests to Support Late-Stage Control Programs for Schistosomiasis and Soil-Transmitted Helminthiases

“…Ideally, a new diagnostic test for schistosomiasis will offer improved accuracy and operational characteristics sufficient to justify the transition costs to control programs from current microscopic methods [7]. Low limit of detection (LOD) requirements for the new test can be addressed by improving the signal-to-noise (S/N) ratio in several ways, including preanalytical concentration of analyte from a large sample volume, preanalytical enzymatic amplification of analyte or use of high S/N labels (fluorophores or up-converting phosphors), and the use of instruments to reduce noise and eliminate bias [30–44].…”

“…[5–7] Schistosoma spp. spend part of their life cycle in cognate planorbid snail intermediate hosts.…”

A next-generation microarray further reveals stage-enriched gene expression pattern in the blood fluke Schistosoma japonicum

“…Schistosomiasis, a debilitating and chronic disease caused by infection with blood flukes (digenetic trematodes) of the genus Schistosoma , remains one of the most significant parasitic diseases worldwide, afflicting more than 230 million people, with about 800 million exposed to the risk of the infection [1, 2]. Schistosomiasis caused about 3.31 million DALYs in 2010, exceeded only by intestinal nematode infections and leishmaniasis, in the list of global neglected tropical diseases [3].…”