Putting the treatment of paediatric schistosomiasis into context.

ABSTRACT: Despite increased international efforts to control schistosomiasis using preventive chemotherapy, several challenges still exist in reaching the target populations. Until recently, preschool-aged children had been excluded from the recommended target population for mass drug administration, i.e. primary school children aged 6-15 years. Our studies and those of others provided the evidence base for the need to treat preschool-aged children that led to recommendations by the World Health Organization to include preschool-aged children in treatment programmes in 2010. The major challenge now lies in the unavailability of a child-size formulation of the appropriate anthelmintic drug, praziquantel.The currently available formulation of praziquantel presents several problems. First, it is a larg

SUBMITTER: Mduluza T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5384153 | biostudies-literature | 2017 Apr

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature