Professor Allen Ross from the Rural Health Research Institute and colleagues have just published a ground-breaking NHMRC-funded trial that will help eliminate schistosomiasis in Asia. Schistosomiasis is a neglected tropical parasitic disease caused by the genus Schistosoma blood flukes. Schistosoma japonicum is zoonotic in China, the Philippines, and Indonesia, with bovines acting as major reservoirs of human infection.
The primary objective of the trial was to examine the impact of a combination of human mass chemotherapy, snail control through mollusciciding, and SjCTPI bovine vaccination on the rate of human infection. A 5-year phase IIIa cluster randomised control trial was conducted among 18 schistosomiasis- endemic villages comprising 18,221 residents in Northern Samar, The Philippines. Overall, bovine vaccination resulted in a statistically significant decrease in human infection across all trial follow-ups.
The best outcome of the trial was when bovine vaccination was combined with snail mollusciciding. This combination resulted in a one-third reduction in human infection. This is the first trial to demonstrate the effectiveness of a bovine vaccine for schistosomiasis in reducing human schistosome infection.
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