National prevalence and risk factors for tungiasis in Kenya.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Tungiasis is a highly neglected tropical skin disease caused by the sand flea, Tunga penetrans, the female of which burrows into the skin, causing pain and itching. The disease occurs throughout South America and sub-Saharan Africa but there are few systematic data on national disease burdens. The tungiasis research community is keen to develop survey methods to fill this gap. Here we used a school-based, thorough examination method to determine the prevalence and risk factors for tungiasis in Kenya.

Methods

We conducted the first nationally representative survey of tungiasis, including nine counties covering the major ecological zones of Kenya. A stratified multistage random sampling was used to select 22 primary schools from each of the nine counties and to sele

SUBMITTER: Elson L 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10506256 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature