Project 462193

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic infection that affects over 200 million people worldwide with more than 90% of the global burden in African settings. Children and the impoverished are disproportionately impacted, and chronic infection leads to significant morbidity and mortality. Current World Health Organization (WHO) efforts to combat schistosomiasis involve treating entire regions with antiparasitic medication through Mass Drug Administration (MDA) programs, regardless of individual infection status. MDA programs have very high operating costs, and though this approach does help reduce the long-term consequences in those infected, the lack of sensitive point-of-care diagnostic tools for schistosomiasis creates significant barriers to the optimization of these limited resources. It is not uncommon for many communities to receive unnecessary treatment, while others experiencing high infection rates are left untreated. This inappropriate distribution of antiparasitic drugs significantly raises the possibility of developing antimicrobial resistance, which would be catastrophic to endemic regions. The WHO has recently identified the lack of effective tools for monitoring schistosomiasis as high priority research area. This project seeks to optimize an existing screening tool for urogenital schistosomiasis through the integration of an automated detection algorithm into our previously validated mobile phone microscope. Successful completion will yield a rapid, easy-to-use, sensitive point-of-contact screening tool that is portable, inexpensive, and battery powered, thereby alleviating major screening hurdles. We will then validate a sensitive and rapid screening approach for urogenital and gastrointestinal schistosomiasis by coupling the automated mobile phone microscope (S. haematobium) with the POC-CCA test (S. mansoni) to help guide evidence-based and granular schistosomiasis MDA programs, as recommended by the World Health Organization.