Report of a meeting to review the results of studies on the treatment of schistosomiasis in preschool-age children

Overview

 Children aged under 4 years (or below 94 cm in height) have been excluded from mass treatment programmes for control of schistosomiasis because of the limited documentation on the safety of praziquantel in this age group. To address this information gap, the World Health Organization (WHO) convened a meeting at its headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, on 13–14 September 2010 to review the results of studies on the treatment of schistosomiasis in preschool-age children.

Preschool-age children are at high risk of schistosomiasis. In areas of Mali, Niger, Sudan, Uganda and Zimbabwe, prevalence of the infection ranged from 18% to 63%. Studies on the treatment of preschool-age children conducted in these five countries (n=3198) among children aged 1 month to 7 years showed that praziquantel in a tablet or suspension formulation was safe and effective against schistosomiasis, and acceptable. In all the studies, high cure rates were observed, and significant reductions in mean egg counts occurred for both urogenital and intestinal schistosomiasis. The two studies in Mali and Uganda that compared suspension and tablets found no difference in cure rates between the two formulations. In Uganda, there was also no difference in rates of egg reduction between the two formulations.