The costs of schistosomiasis control in a Sahelian country.

The cost of schistosomiasis control in Mali was calculated on the assumption that the programme is fully nationalized and organized using the experience gained during the past seven years. In order to expand the model and to extrapolate from actual cost that arose, activities have been standardized into preparatory, baseline and follow-up sample surveys for monitoring purposes and into blanket and case mass chemotherapy for interventions. Health education is contained in them as a component, sanitation is seen as a standard item linked at a fixed cost to the duration of the intervention phase.

Experiences with mass chemotherapy in the control of schistosomiasis in Mali.

Mass chemotherapy using praziquantel in a single dose of 40 mg/kg was the main strategy of schistosomiasis control in Mali during the intervention phase. Treatment was applied either indiscriminately to all inhabitants over the age of two years of a given village or as a case treatment to those found infected during a previous parasitological examination. In one study area, only children aged 5 to 15 were treated if they had been found infected.

An evaluation of sampling methods within communities and the validity of parasitological examination techniques in the field.

In order to enable the assessment of schistosomiasis control, it has to be monitored. The methods and techniques employed for monitoring have to be validated in turn. In the Malian National Schistosomiasis Control Programme, only samples of the village population are examined.

The National Schistosomiasis Control Programme in Mali, objectives, organization, results.

Schistosomiasis control started regionally, in the Bandiagara district, and as a component of a dam-building project in 1978. In 1982 a national programme was created. Control was divided into three phases: Preparation, intervention and maintenance.