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Publication Details
AFRICAN RESEARCH NEXUS
SHINING A SPOTLIGHT ON AFRICAN RESEARCH
medicine
Comparison of Individual and Pooled Stool Samples for the Assessment of Soil-Transmitted Helminth Infection Intensity and Drug Efficacy
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Volume 7, No. 5, Article e2189, Year 2013
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Description
Background:In veterinary parasitology samples are often pooled for a rapid assessment of infection intensity and drug efficacy. Currently, studies evaluating this strategy in large-scale drug administration programs to control human soil-transmitted helminths (STHs; Ascaris lumbricoides, Trichuris trichiura, and hookworm), are absent. Therefore, we developed and evaluated a pooling strategy to assess intensity of STH infections and drug efficacy.Methods/Principal Findings:Stool samples from 840 children attending 14 primary schools in Jimma, Ethiopia were pooled (pool sizes of 10, 20, and 60) to evaluate the infection intensity of STHs. In addition, the efficacy of a single dose of mebendazole (500 mg) in terms of fecal egg count reduction (FECR; synonym of egg reduction rate) was evaluated in 600 children from two of these schools. Individual and pooled samples were examined with the McMaster egg counting method. For each of the three STHs, we found a significant positive correlation between mean fecal egg counts (FECs) of individual stool samples and FEC of pooled stool samples, ranging from 0.62 to 0.98. Only for A. lumbricoides was any significant difference in mean FEC of the individual and pooled samples found. For this STH species, pools of 60 samples resulted in significantly higher FECs. FECR for the different number of samples pooled was comparable in all pool sizes, except for hookworm. For this parasite, pools of 10 and 60 samples provided significantly higher FECR results.Conclusion/Significance:This study highlights that pooling stool samples holds promise as a strategy for rapidly assessing infection intensity and efficacy of administered drugs in programs to control human STHs. However, further research is required to determine when and how pooling of stool samples can be cost-effectively applied along a control program, and to verify whether this approach is also applicable to other NTDs. © 2013 Mekonnen et al.
Available Materials
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC3656117/bin/pntd.0002189.s001.doc
https://efashare.b-cdn.net/share/pmc/articles/PMC3656117/bin/pntd.0002189.s002.docx
Authors & Co-Authors
Mekonnen, Zeleke Abebaw
Ethiopia, Jimma
Jimma University
Belgium, Ghent
Universiteit Gent
Meka, Selima
Ethiopia, Jimma
Jimma University
Ayana, Mio
Ethiopia, Jimma
Jimma University
Bogers, Johannes J.P.M.
Belgium, Antwerpen
Universiteit Antwerpen
Vercruysse, Jozef
Belgium, Ghent
Universiteit Gent
Levecke, Bruno
Belgium, Ghent
Universiteit Gent
Statistics
Citations: 40
Authors: 6
Affiliations: 3
Identifiers
Doi:
10.1371/journal.pntd.0002189
ISSN:
19352727
e-ISSN:
19352735
Research Areas
Maternal And Child Health
Study Locations
Ethiopia