Detection of persistent Plasmodium spp. infections in Ugandan children after artemether-lumefantrine treatment.

During a longitudinal study investigating the dynamics of malaria in Ugandan lakeshore communities, a consistently high malaria prevalence was observed in young children despite regular treatment. To explore the short-term performance of artemether-lumefantrine (AL), a pilot investigation into parasite carriage after treatment(s) was conducted in Bukoba village. A total of 163 children (aged 2-7 years) with a positive blood film and rapid antigen test were treated with AL; only 8.7% of these had elevated axillary temperatures. On day 7 and then on day 17, 40 children (26.3%) and 33 (22.3%) were positive by microscopy, respectively. Real-time PCR analysis demonstrated that multi-species Plasmodium infections were common at baseline, with 41.1% of children positive for Plasmodium falciparum/Plasmodium malariae, 9.2% for P. falciparum/ Plasmodium ovale spp. and 8.0% for all three species. Moreover, on day 17, 39.9% of children infected with falciparum malaria at baseline were again positive for the same species, and 9.2% of those infected with P. malariae at baseline were positive for P. malariae. Here, chronic multi-species malaria infections persisted in children after AL treatment(s). Better point-of-care diagnostics for non-falciparum infections are needed, as well as further investigation of AL performance in asymptomatic individuals.

Wuchereria bancrofti infection at four primary schools and surrounding communities with no previous blood surveys in northern Uganda: the prevalence after mass drug administrations and a report on suspected non-filarial endemic elephantiasis.

BACKGROUND: A prevalence study of Wuchereria bancrofti infection was carried out in 2014 at 4 study sites in northern Uganda using antigen and microfilaria tests. Each study site consists of a primary school and surrounding communities. These sites are inside the filariasis endemic area and have been covered by mass drug administration under the national elimination programme. However, no prevalence study had been conducted there before the present study. Without information on past and present endemicity levels, our study was meant to be an independent third-party investigation to know the latest filariasis situation. RESULTS: A total of 982 people including 570 schoolchildren (7-19 years) and 412 community people (7-25 years) were examined, all of them for filarial antigen and 695 for microfilariae. The study revealed that all subjects were negative by both methods. CONCLUSIONS: It was considered that annual mass drug administrations together with anti-malarial activities such as indoor residual spraying had contributed to the reduction of the filarial infection. However, based on the past data obtained near our study sites, we cannot exclude the possibility that filarial prevalence rates in our study sites were very low or even zero originally. During the study, we encountered several patients with lower leg edema and pachydermic (elephant skin-like), mossy skin lesion of the foot. Judging from clinical features and bare-footed life-style of people in the area, non-filarial elephantiasis, possibly podoconiosis, was suspected. This elephantiasis has been reported in areas where filariasis is not endemic.

Erratum to: Wuchereria bancrofti infection at four primary schools and surrounding communities with no previous blood surveys in northern Uganda: the prevalence after mass drug administrations and a report on suspected non-filarial endemic elephantiasis.

[This corrects the article DOI: 10.1186/s41182-017-0060-y.].

Compatibility of Ugandan Schistosoma mansoni isolates with Biomphalaria snail species from Lake Albert and Lake Victoria.

In order to investigate the capacity of being intermediate host for Schistosoma mansoni, the Ugandan F1 generation of Biomphalaria snail species that were laboratory-bred from parent populations originally collected from either Lake Victoria or Lake Albert was challenged with sympatric and non-sympatric S. mansoni isolates. After a prepatent period of 20 days, a daily 10-hourly snail shedding for cercariae was done to determine the infection rate, cercarial production per hour and survival period of infected snails. The study suggests that when parasite strains from a different geographical origin is used for infection, survival of infected snails increase, leading to an increased transmission potential. Although earlier literature had indicated that the Lake Victoria Biomphalaria sudanica is refractory to S. mansoni, we showed that all Ugandan Biomphalaria spp., including B. sudanica from all locations, were highly susceptible to the S. mansoni isolates. Thus if B. choanomphala, which is an efficient intermediate host in Lake Victoria, is given an opportunity to occupy Lake Albert, it will most likely be compatible with the Albertine S. mansoni parasites. Equally, if B. stanleyi, currently restricted to Lake Albert invades Lake Victoria, it is likely to act as an efficient intermediate host. Future work should concentrate on intraspecific population-level differences in compatibility.