FioSchisto's expert perspective on implementing WHO guidelines for schistosomiasis control and transmission elimination in Brazil.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes schistosomiasis as one of the Neglected Tropical Diseases targeted for global elimination in the 2030 Agenda of the Sustainable Development Goals. In Brazil, schistosomiasis mansoni is considered a public health problem, particularly prevalent among vulnerable populations living in areas with poor environmental and sanitary conditions. In 2022, the WHO published a Guideline encompassing recommendations to assist national programs in endemic countries in achieving morbidity control, eliminating schistosomiasis as a public health problem, and advancing towards interrupting transmission.

Corrigendum: Assessment of the accuracy of 11 different diagnostic tests for the detection of in individuals from a Brazilian area of low endemicity using latent class analysis.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.3389/fmicb.2022.

Assessment of the accuracy of 11 different diagnostic tests for the detection of in individuals from a Brazilian area of low endemicity using latent class analysis.

Background: Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease associated with poverty. It is estimated that 7.1 million people are infected with in Latin America, with 95% of them living in Brazil.

Teachers as multipliers of knowledge about schistosomiasis: a possible approach for health education programmes.

Background: In the past decade, Brazil has significantly reduced the prevalence of schistosomiasis through a combined effort of early treatment of infected people, expansion of basic sanitation infrastructure and educational measures. Despite these efforts, in some areas, prevalence of schistosomiasis exceeds 20% of the school population, who lack knowledge of the risks of the disease. Action can be taken in schools to empower this population about their health condition.

Adherence to diagnosis followed by selective treatment of schistosomiasis mansoni and related knowledge among schoolchildren in an endemic area of Minas Gerais, Brazil, prior to and after the implementation of educational actions.

Introduction: Brazilian guidelines for schistosomiasis elimination recommend regular search of infection carriers and their timely treatment. This study evaluates the effect of educational actions (EAs) among schoolchildren on adherence to diagnosis and treatment, as well as on knowledge of the disease.

Methods: In April/2013, a questionnaire was applied to 6th-to-8th-grade pupils of eight public schools to evaluate prior knowledge of disease and self-reported risk behavior.

[Characterization of printed educational materials about schistosomiasis used in health education in endemic areas in Brazil].

Objective: to characterize printed educational materials about schistosomiasis produced at federal, state and municipal levels in Brazil.

Methods: the educational materials were characterized considering the following categories: 'format', 'parasite and intermediate host', 'definitive host (ill)' and 'disease'.

Results: 60 materials were assessed, three had no information about risk activities and 41 indicated more than one popular name for the disease, thus allowing greater reach among the target audience in diverse endemic areas; the biological cycle was missing or incorrect in 53 materials; the intermediate host (snail) was incorrectly illustrated, with use of stereotyped images in 39 and no image in one material; diagnosis was mentioned in 36 materials.

Schistosoma mansoni infection and related knowledge among schoolchildren in an endemic area of Minas Gerais, Brazil, prior to educational actions.

As a signatory to World Health Assembly Resolution WHA65.21 on eliminating schistosomiasis, the Brazilian Ministry of Health (MoH) recommends early identification and timely treatment of the infection carriers for morbidity control, plus complementary preventive measures, such as health education, for transmission control. This study reports infection and awareness of schistosomiasis among schoolchildren before the implementation of school-based educational actions in an endemic municipality with persisting moderate prevalence levels despite successive control campaigns since the late 1990s.

Ecotourism as a source of infection with in Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Background: In recent years, a new pattern of schistosomiasis transmission has been described which is related to recreational activities associated with rural or ecological tourism and migratory flows and accompanying changes in social dynamics in Brazil. The objective of this report is to describe two schistosomiasis outbreaks that occurred during the practice of rural tourism in Minas Gerais, Brazil, and review this pattern of transmission within the wider context of schistosomiasis control.

Findings: The first outbreak was characterized by its high infection rate, showing that 59 % of the exposed eco-tourists became positive for infection with .

Evaluation of two coproscopic techniques for the diagnosis of schistosomiasis in a low-transmission area in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

This population study, which evaluated two parasitological methods for the diagnosis of schistosomiasis mansoni, was performed in a low-transmission area in Pedra Preta, Montes Claros, Minas Gerais, Brazil. A total of 201 inhabitants of the rural area participated in this research. Four stool samples were obtained from all participants and analysed using the Kato-Katz method (18 slides) and a commercial test, the TF-Test®, which was performed quantitatively.

Disinfection of domestic effluents by gamma radiation: effects on the inactivation of Ascaris lumbricoides eggs.

This work investigated the inactivation of Ascaris lumbricoides eggs in domestic effluents by gamma radiation from a (60)Co source. Domestic wastewater was treated in a compact demo-scale system consisting of a UASB reactor and a trickling filter; treatment was carried out at the Center for Research and Training on Sanitation (CePTS), Federal University of Minas Gerais, in Belo Horizonte-MG, Brazil. One-liter of treated wastewater samples was artificially contaminated with an average of 1000 non-embryonated Ascaris lumbricoides eggs from human feces; samples were then irradiated in a multiple-purpose irradiator at different doses (0.

Effect of a participatory educational program on primary school teachers' knowledge of malaria.

Objective: To describe a participatory educational program for building up knowledge on malaria among primary school teachers in a highly endemic city.

Methods: An observational study was conducted. A 40-hour course with a multidisciplinary and problematizing approach was held in 2008, including 46 teachers mainly from rural areas of the city of Barcelos, Northern Brazil.

Excretory-secretory products from hookworm l(3) and adult worms suppress proinflammatory cytokines in infected individuals.

We compared the effects of larval and adult worm excretory-secretory (ES) products from hookworm on the proliferative responses and cytokine secretion in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) from hookwormpatients and egg-negative, nonendemic controls. When compared with negative controls, mitogen-stimulated PBMC from hookworm-infected individuals showed a significantly reduced proliferative response when adult worm ES antigen was added to the cultures. Furthermore, in hookworm-infected individuals a significant downmodulation of inflammatory interleukin (IL)-6 and tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α secretion resulted when PBMCs were stimulated with mitogen in combination with larval or adult worm ES.

Factors related to transmission of and infection with Schistosoma mansoni in a village in the South-eastern Region of Brazil.

In this transversal study, factors related to infection with and transmission of Schistosoma mansoni were explored. Based on stool examinations of two Kato-Katz smears of a single sample, the prevalences of schistosomiasis and geohelminths were established. In a multivariable analysis, sets of demographic, socio-economic and water contact pattern variables were tested for strength of relation with infection.

Rural tourism: a risk factor for schistosomiasis transmission in Brazil.

This paper reports an outbreak of acute schistosomiasis among 38 tourists who rented a country house in the district of Igarapé, the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte, Brazil, during a holiday period in 2006. A total number of 32 individuals were positive for Schistosoma mansoni. Results of stool examinations revealed individual S.

The Estrada Real project and endemic diseases: the case of schistosomiasis, geoprocessing and tourism.

Geographical Information System (GIS) is a tool that has recently been applied to better understand spatial disease distributions. Using meteorological, social, sanitation, mollusc distribution data and remote sensing variables, this study aimed to further develop the GIS technology by creating a model for the spatial distribution of schistosomiasis and to apply this model to an area with rural tourism in the Brazilian state of Minas Gerais (MG). The Estrada Real, covering about 1,400 km, is the largest and most important Brazilian tourism project, involving 163 cities in MG with different schistosomiasis prevalence rates.

[Comparative analysis of parasite detection methods in vegetables for human consumption].

Introduction: vegetable contamination is a persistent health problem. The different methods of processing and diagnosis make it difficult to determine the most effective and sensitive technique.

Objective: a comparative analysis of parasitological technique sensitivity in vegetable samples.

[Evaluation of schistosomiasis mansoni control measures in Sabará, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, 1980-2007].

Schistosomiasis control programs in Brazil have helped reduce prevalence and the severe forms of the disease, but have failed to prevent new foci from appearing, especially on the periphery of large cities. The current article aims to assess the prevalence of schistosomiasis and the presence of intermediates hosts for Schistosoma mansoni in the district of Ravena, Municipality of Sabará, Minas Gerais State, Brazil, 27 years after implementing water treatment and specific treatment for infected individuals. Ravena responded positively to schistosomiasis control measures, with a prevalence of 2.

Host immune response to Toxoplasma gondii and Ascaris lumbricoides in a highly endemic area: evidence of parasite co-immunomodulation properties influencing the outcome of both infections.

Toxoplasmosis and ascaridiasis evoke polar Th-1 and Th-2 host immune responses, respectively. A study to investigate the specific cytokine profile production by in vitro cultures of peripheral blood mononuclear cells from individuals living under precarious sanitary conditions in a highly endemic area for the parasites Toxoplasma gondii and Ascaris lumbricoides was conducted. High levels of both IFN-gamma (Th-1) and IL-13 (Th-2) were observed in groups of co-infected individuals presenting toxoplasmic ocular lesions.

Necator americanus infection: a possible cause of altered dendritic cell differentiation and eosinophil profile in chronically infected individuals.

Background: Hookworms survive for several years (5 to 7 years) in the host lumen, inducing a robust but largely ineffective immune response. Among the most striking aspects of the immune response to hookworm (as with many other helminths) is the ablation of parasite-specific T cell proliferative response (hyporesponsiveness). While the role of the adaptive immune response in human helminth infection has been well investigated, the role of the innate immune responses (e.

[Schistosomiasis in an ecotourism area in Minas Gerais State, Brazil].

This paper discusses schistosomiasis transmission in São José da Serra, a village with a population of 500 in the county of Jaboticatubas, Minas Gerais State, Brazil. The area receives thousands of visitors a year for ecotourism. The study was motivated by a case of acute schistosomiasis involving a couple that spent the 2007 Carnival (Mardi Gras) holiday in the area.

A combined strategy to improve the control of Schistosoma mansoni in areas of low prevalence in Brazil.

Results of stool examinations for infections with Schistosoma mansoni among schoolchildren, living in a village of Minas Gerais State, Brazil, were used as an indicator to identify schistosomiasis-positive individuals within the entire population. This new approach is based on dividing the community into schoolchildren, members of households of schistosomiasis-positive and -negative schoolchildren, and members of households without schoolchildren. Each subgroup was evaluated comparing different sampling efforts with the predetermined "gold standard" to find the best relationship between detection rate and sampling effort.

Discursive media strategies in the journalistic construction of schistosomiasis in Jaboticatubas, Minas Gerais.

Using media discourse analysis for material published by the press on schistosomiasis in the city of Jaboticatubas, the possible determining factors of narrative and discursive constructions in the diffusion of information are discussed. It was observed that media discourse treats schistosomiasis in 1962 as something from the natural order. By 1997 and 1998, the media discourse strategies reveal ideological treatment in favor of certain social segments.

Evaluation of an improved approach using residences of schistosomiasis-positive school children to identify carriers in an area of low endemicity.

School children were used as indicators for the identification of schistosomiasis-positive family members in a area of low endemicity. This study was designed to improve current schistosomiasis control programs by applying this strategy to identify schistosomiasis-positive individuals in a more efficient way. The initial prevalence among school children was 8.

Factors associated with schistosomiasis mansoni in a population from the municipality of Jaboticatubas, State of Minas Gerais, Brazil.

Jaboticatubas is a municipality in the metropolitan region of Belo Horizonte which has been a target of a wide media release as "the capital of schistosomiasis" since the 1960's. In order to give support to a work based on an integrated control, we sought to identify the disease determinants at the site. A transversal study was carried out aimed at identifying prevalence rates of the disease and factors associated with the infection in the district of São José de Almeida, and two close localities, Cipó Velho and São José da Serra, all of them located in the municipality of Jaboticatubas.

A Pedagogical approach of schistosomiasis -- an experience in health education in Minas Gerais, Brazil.

The experience described here is part of an extensive program that aims to stimulate schools to develop health integrated projects from theme generators, i.e., themes that have a meaning for the community.