Therapeutic efficacy of different brands of albendazole against soil transmitted helminths among students of Mendera Elementary School, Jimma, Southwest Ethiopia

Introduction: Different brands Albendazole are commercially available and the efficacious brand/s is/are required for effective control of STHs infection. Thus, this study is aimed at determining the therapeutic efficacy of different brands of albendazole against soil transmitted helminths among school children of Jimma town. Methods: A cross sectional survey for prevalence of geohelminths and a randomized trial for efficacy study of different brands of albendazole was conducted among students Mendera Elementary School from March 29 to April 29, 2010. Positive subjects were randomized into three treatment arms using lottery method. The collected stool samples were examined by the McMaster method. CRs were calculated using SPSS windows version 16 and ERRs were calculated using appropriate formula. Results: Of the 715 school children who had their stools examined, 326 were positive for STHs with a prevalence rate of 45.6%. The cure rates (CR) for A. lumbricoides, T. trichiura and Hookworm were 99.4, 59.9 and 93.7%, respectively. Similarly, the egg reduction rates (ERR) were 97, 99.9 and 99.9% respectively. A statistical significant mean STH egg count difference were observed between pre and post-intervention study (p <0.001). But no statistical significant curing effect difference were observed among the three brands used against the three STHs (p >0.05). Conclusion: All the three brands of Albendazole tested regardless of the brand type were therapeutically efficacious for Ascariasis, Trichuriasis and Hookworm infections irrespective of the infection status whether it was single or multiple.Pan African Medical Journal 2015; 2

Use of Occult Blood Detection Cards for Real-Time PCR-Based Diagnosis of Schistosoma Mansoni Infection.

In Schistosoma mansoni infection, diagnosis and control after treatment mainly rely on parasitological stool investigations which are laborious and have limited sensitivity. PCR methods have shown equal or superior sensitivity but preservation and storage methods limit their use in the field. Therefore, the use of occult blood detection cards (fecal cards) for easy sampling and storage of fecal samples for further PCR testing was evaluated in a pilot study.Stool specimens were collected in a highly endemic area for S. mansoni in Ethiopia and submitted in an investigator-blinded fashion to microscopic examination by Kato-Katz thick smear as well as to real-time PCR using either fresh frozen stool samples or stool smears on fecal cards which have been stored at ambient temperature for up to ten months.Out of 55 stool samples, 35 were positive by microscopy, 33 and 32 were positive by PCR of frozen samples and of fecal card samples, respectively. When microscopy was used as diagnostic "gold standard", the sensitivity of PCR on fresh stool was 94.3% (95%-CI: 86.6; 100) and on fecal cards 91.4% (95%-CI: 82.2; 100).The use of fecal cards proved to be a simple and useful method for stool collection and prolonged storage prior to PCR based diagnosis of S. mansoni infection. This technique may be a valuable approach for large scale surveillance and post treatment assessments

Comparison of PCR detection rates in DNA extracted from fecal cards and fresh frozen stool samples.

<p>Comparison of PCR detection rates in DNA extracted from fecal cards and fresh frozen stool samples.</p

Results of qPCR for fecal card samples vs. stool/dilution samples for different egg counts.

<p>^# Ct-values of different days</p><p>Results of qPCR for fecal card samples vs. stool/dilution samples for different egg counts.</p

Parasitological examination for intestinal parasites.

<p>Parasitological examination for intestinal parasites.</p

Boxplot of 30 paired PCR-positive samples comparing the distribution of Ct-values in fecal card samples (median Ct-value 33.0) and frozen stool samples (median Ct-value 28.5)

<p>Boxplot of 30 paired PCR-positive samples comparing the distribution of Ct-values in fecal card samples (median Ct-value 33.0) and frozen stool samples (median Ct-value 28.5)</p