ABSTRACT
Aims: The study aimed to assess an update of the burden of schistosomiasis among primary school children.Study Design:The study was a school-based cross-sectional study carried out among children aged between 4 to 15 years old.Place and Duration of Study:The study took place in Njombé, Littoral Region, Cameroon from March to April 2017.Methodology:Urine and stool samples were collected were collected from 412 school-aged children and examined using the urine filtration method and the Kato-Katz technique respectively. A questionnaire was administered to assess their water related activities. The data were analyzed using SPSS version 2.0. Logistic regression and odds ratio was used to measure association and strength between variables respectively. P-value < .05 at 95% CI was considered as statistically significant.Results:The overall prevalence of schistosomiasis was 9.7%, with 7,8% and 1,9% of school children infected with S.mansoniand S. haematobium,respectively and 0.7% co-infection with both species. The intensities of S. haematobiumand S. mansoniinfection were 2.1 eggs per 10 mL of urine, 94 eggs per gram of stool respectively. The multiple regression analysis revealed that itching after bathing in backwater (Odds ratio (OR)= 2.427, confidence interval (CI): 1.080 -5454, P=.03). And school children attending EPB Alpha (OR= 2.024), CI: 1.203 –4.804, P=.011). were predictors of schistosomiasis infection. However, significantassociation was found between schistosomiasis and playing in the stream and the presence of the river and back water in thevicinity of schools.Conclusion:There was a drastic decline in the prevalence of schistosomiasis infection in school children in Njombé compared to previous reports. The decrease is attributed to the bi-annual deworming campaign by the Public Health Authorities.
ABSTRACT
Aims:The study sought to quantifyPlasmodiuminfection and molecular markers for chloroquine resistance among asymptomatic school children.Study Design:The study was cross-sectional.Place and Duration of Study:The study was carried out in Ekondo Titi Subdivision near Original Research Article Cameroon's south-western border with Nigeria from March to May and from September to October 2014.Methodology:The prevalence of humanPlasmodium specieswas determined by nested PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction) using DNA from dried blood spot in six primary schools. A PCR/RFLP analysis (Restriction Fragment Length Polymorphism) was used to determine the prevalence of chloroquine resistance (CQR) associatedpfcrt76T andpfmdr1 56Y point mutations in Plasmodiumfalciparumasymptomatic school children.Results: A nested PCR amplifying the 18S small-subunit ribosomal RNA (SSU rRNA) gene of Plasmodiumin 205 samples confirmed 76.1% of the isolates as asymptomatic P.falciparuminfections, with a substantial proportion 22% ofP. malariaeinfection. Among these, 3.6% were singleP. malariaeinfections and 15.1% wereP. falciparumandP. malariaemixed infections. MixedP. falciparumandP. ovaleinfections were2.0%. Of the 156Plasmodium falciparum, positive samples by species-specific PCR, 107 samples withP. falciparummono-infection were analyzed for the presence of drug resistant allelespfcrt76T andpfmdr1-Y 86. The prevalence ofpfcrt76T mutation (74.6%) was higher than that of thepfmdr1-Y86 mutation (25.4%). Logistic regression analysis of socio-demographic factors predicted no significant association betweenpfcrt76T mutation with gender and communities.Conclusions:The results indicated a high prevalence ofP. malariaeand mixed infection in the area under study. The high-level distribution of thepfcrtT76observed in the study could be possibly attributed to the fact that CQ remained widely used at the community level more than 14 years after withdrawal