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J Parasit Dis Diagn Ther 2017 | Volume 2 Issue 4
International Conference on
Zoology, Microbiology & Medical Parasitology
October 30-November 01, 2017 | Chicago, USA
Comparison of individual and pooled urine samples for estimating the presence and intensity of
Schistosoma haematobium
infections at the population level
Abraham Degarege
1,2
, Berhanu Erko
1
, Zeleke Mekonnen
3,4
, Mengistu Legesse
1
, Yohannes Negash
1
, Jozef Vercruysse
3
, Purnima Madhivanan
2
and
Bruno
Levecke
3
1
Addis Ababa University, Ethiopia
2
Florida International University, USA
3
Ghent University, Belgium
4
Jimma University, Ethiopia
Statement of the problem:
We lack cost-effective diagnostic
strategies to evaluate whether mass drug administration
(MDA) programs to control
Schistosoma haematobium
progress as anticipated. The purpose of this study is to
provide a proof-of-principle for examination of pooled urine
samples as a strategy for rapid assessment of presence and
intensity of
Schistosoma haematobium
infections at the
population level.
Methodology:
A total of 640 urine samples were collected
from 520 school-aged children. Individual and pooled urine
samples were screened using the filtration technique to
determine the number of
S. haematobium
eggs in 10 ml of
urine. Samples were pooled into pools of 5 (n = 128), 10 (n
= 64) and 20 (n = 32) individual samples. The sensitivity and
urine egg counts (UECs) of a pooled examination strategy
was calculated for each pool size.
Findings:
The sensitivity of a pooled examination strategy
was 50.6% for pools of 5, 68.6% for pools of 10 and 63.3%
for pools of 20. The sensitivity of a pooled examination
strategy increased as a function of increasing mean UEC
of the corresponding individual urine samples. For each
of the three pool sizes, there was a significant positive
correlation between mean UECs of individual and those
obtained in pooled samples (correlation coefficient: 0.81–
0.93). Examination of pools of 5 provided significantly lower
UECs compared to the individual examination strategy (3.9
eggs/10 ml urine versus 5.0 eggs/10 ml urine). For pools of
10 (4.4 eggs/10 ml) and 20 (4.2 eggs/10 ml), no significant
difference in UECs was observed.
Conclusions:
Examination of pooled urine samples applying
urine filtration holds promise for rapid assessment of
intensity of
S. haematobium
infections, but may fail to
detect presence of infections when endemicity is low.
Further investigation is required to determine when and
how pooling can be optimally implemented in monitoring of
MDA programs.
Speaker Biography
Abraham Degarege has several years’ research experience on studying the
epidemiology of malaria and helminth coinfection and evaluating the performance
of different techniques for the diagnosis of helminth and Plasmodium parasites.
His findings help to understand the nature of interaction between helminth and
Plasmodium and improve diagnosis of helminth infection. His recent research on the
diagnostic performance of the pooling techniques indicated new cost effective strategy
for the rapid assessment of Schistosoma haematobium infections at a population
level. This pooling strategy will help to evaluate whether the current mass deworming
programs to control Schistosoma haematobium progress as anticipated.
e:
ameng002@fiu.edu abrahamdegarege@yahoo.com