Institute of Immunology and Infection Research, University of Edinburgh, Ashworth Laboratories, King's Buildings, Charlotte Auerbach Road, Edinburgh EH9 3FL, UK; Tackling Infections to Benefit Africa (TIBA) Partnership, TIBA Global Health Research Unit, University of Edinburgh, Ashworth Laboratories, King's Buildings, Charlotte Auerbach Road, Edinburgh, EH9 3FL, UK.
Department of the Control of Neglected Tropical Diseases, World Health Organization, Geneva, 1211, Switzerland.
Trends Parasitol. 2024 Aug;40(8):687-695. doi: 10.1016/j.pt.2024.06.011. Epub 2024 Jul 19.
Schistosomiasis is the second most important parasitic disease of public health importance in Africa, affecting over 50 million children aged <5 years old. Schistosomiasis control has focused on treating school-aged children (>6 years) and adults through mass drug administration (MDA). Following the recent development of a paediatric praziquantel (PZQ) formulation for children aged <5 years, there are now concerted efforts to determine optimal and effective ways to integrate treatment of these children into national schistosomiasis control programmes. In this opinion article we outline the pathway for successful drug access, delivery, and mainstreaming of the new formulation in endemic country health systems. Effective and sustained paediatric schistosomiasis treatment is an important target of the 2030 World Health Organization (WHO) neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) roadmap.
血吸虫病是非洲第二大重要的公共卫生寄生虫病，影响着超过 5000 万 5 岁以下儿童。血吸虫病控制的重点是通过大规模药物治疗（MDA）来治疗学龄儿童（>6 岁）和成年人。在最近开发出一种适合 5 岁以下儿童的驱虫药（PZQ）配方后，现在正在共同努力确定将这些儿童纳入国家血吸虫病控制规划的最佳和有效的治疗方法。在这篇观点文章中，我们概述了成功获得药物、在流行国家卫生系统中提供药物以及将新配方纳入主流的途径。有效和持续的儿童血吸虫病治疗是 2030 年世界卫生组织（WHO）被忽视的热带病（NTDs）路线图的一个重要目标。
