Protective immunity to Schistosoma haematobium infection is primarily an anti-fecundity response stimulated by the death of adult worms.

ABSTRACT: Protective immunity against human schistosome infection develops slowly, for reasons that are not yet fully understood. For many decades, researchers have attempted to infer properties of the immune response from epidemiological studies, with mathematical models frequently being used to bridge the gap between immunological theory and population-level data on schistosome infection and immune responses. Here, building upon earlier model findings, stochastic individual-based models were used to identify model structures consistent with observed field patterns of Schistosoma haematobium infection and antibody responses, including their distributions in cross-sectional surveys, and the observed treatment-induced antibody switch. We found that the observed patterns of infection and antibody were

SUBMITTER: Mitchell KM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3421178 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature