Assessment of environmental contamination with soil-transmitted helminths life stages at school compounds, households and open markets in Jimma Town, Ethiopia.
Background It remains largely unknown where and how infections with soil-transmitted helminths (STHs; Ascaris, Trichuris, Necator and Ancylostoma) occur. We therefore aimed to identify possible sources of infection by assessing the environmental contamination in an STH-endemic area. Methods We first...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:9b57e6268c64403795dc4b4de8164095 2023-05-15T15:15:43+02:00 Assessment of environmental contamination with soil-transmitted helminths life stages at school compounds, households and open markets in Jimma Town, Ethiopia. Bamlaku Tadege Zeleke Mekonnen Daniel Dana Bizuwarek Sharew Eden Dereje Eskindir Loha Jaco J Verweij Stijn Casaert Johnny Vlaminck Mio Ayana Bruno Levecke 2022-04-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010307 https://doaj.org/article/9b57e6268c64403795dc4b4de8164095 EN eng Public Library of Science (PLoS) https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010307 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0010307 https://doaj.org/article/9b57e6268c64403795dc4b4de8164095 PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 16, Iss 4, p e0010307 (2022) Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2022 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010307 2022-12-30T21:15:26Z Background It remains largely unknown where and how infections with soil-transmitted helminths (STHs; Ascaris, Trichuris, Necator and Ancylostoma) occur. We therefore aimed to identify possible sources of infection by assessing the environmental contamination in an STH-endemic area. Methods We first performed a series of laboratory experiments designed to optimize a soil straining-flotation method to detect and quantify Ascaris and Trichuris eggs in soil, and to validate the diagnostic performance of the optimized method when followed by microscopy and qPCR. In a second phase, we applied this method to assess the level of STH contamination in 399 environmental samples collected from 10 school compounds, 50 households and 9 open markets in Jimma Town (Ethiopia). Subsequently, we explored associations between the environmental contamination and both the corresponding STH epidemiology at the level of the schools and the household characteristics. Finally, we assessed the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) towards STHs in school children. Principal findings Our soil straining-flotation method has an analytical sensitivity of 50 eggs per 100 grams of soil and egg recovery rate of 36.0% (Ascaris) and 8.0% (Trichuris). The analysis of field samples with both microscopy and qPCR revealed the presence of 8 different helminth species of medical importance, including but not limited to the human STHs. There was a significant association between the environmental contamination and prevalence of any STH infections at the school level only. The KAP indicated a lack of knowledge and awareness of STHs. Conclusions/significance Our optimized straining-flotation method has a moderate diagnostic performance and revealed that life stages of helminths are ubiquitous in the environment, which might be due to the poor sanitary facilities at both the schools and the households, and a poor level of KAP towards STHs. Further research is required to gain more insights into the contribution of these life stages to transmission. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Kap ENVELOPE(23.567,23.567,65.533,65.533) PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases 16 4 e0010307 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
spellingShingle |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Bamlaku Tadege Zeleke Mekonnen Daniel Dana Bizuwarek Sharew Eden Dereje Eskindir Loha Jaco J Verweij Stijn Casaert Johnny Vlaminck Mio Ayana Bruno Levecke Assessment of environmental contamination with soil-transmitted helminths life stages at school compounds, households and open markets in Jimma Town, Ethiopia. |
topic_facet |
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
Background It remains largely unknown where and how infections with soil-transmitted helminths (STHs; Ascaris, Trichuris, Necator and Ancylostoma) occur. We therefore aimed to identify possible sources of infection by assessing the environmental contamination in an STH-endemic area. Methods We first performed a series of laboratory experiments designed to optimize a soil straining-flotation method to detect and quantify Ascaris and Trichuris eggs in soil, and to validate the diagnostic performance of the optimized method when followed by microscopy and qPCR. In a second phase, we applied this method to assess the level of STH contamination in 399 environmental samples collected from 10 school compounds, 50 households and 9 open markets in Jimma Town (Ethiopia). Subsequently, we explored associations between the environmental contamination and both the corresponding STH epidemiology at the level of the schools and the household characteristics. Finally, we assessed the knowledge, attitude and practice (KAP) towards STHs in school children. Principal findings Our soil straining-flotation method has an analytical sensitivity of 50 eggs per 100 grams of soil and egg recovery rate of 36.0% (Ascaris) and 8.0% (Trichuris). The analysis of field samples with both microscopy and qPCR revealed the presence of 8 different helminth species of medical importance, including but not limited to the human STHs. There was a significant association between the environmental contamination and prevalence of any STH infections at the school level only. The KAP indicated a lack of knowledge and awareness of STHs. Conclusions/significance Our optimized straining-flotation method has a moderate diagnostic performance and revealed that life stages of helminths are ubiquitous in the environment, which might be due to the poor sanitary facilities at both the schools and the households, and a poor level of KAP towards STHs. Further research is required to gain more insights into the contribution of these life stages to transmission. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Bamlaku Tadege Zeleke Mekonnen Daniel Dana Bizuwarek Sharew Eden Dereje Eskindir Loha Jaco J Verweij Stijn Casaert Johnny Vlaminck Mio Ayana Bruno Levecke |
author_facet |
Bamlaku Tadege Zeleke Mekonnen Daniel Dana Bizuwarek Sharew Eden Dereje Eskindir Loha Jaco J Verweij Stijn Casaert Johnny Vlaminck Mio Ayana Bruno Levecke |
author_sort |
Bamlaku Tadege |
title |
Assessment of environmental contamination with soil-transmitted helminths life stages at school compounds, households and open markets in Jimma Town, Ethiopia. |
title_short |
Assessment of environmental contamination with soil-transmitted helminths life stages at school compounds, households and open markets in Jimma Town, Ethiopia. |
title_full |
Assessment of environmental contamination with soil-transmitted helminths life stages at school compounds, households and open markets in Jimma Town, Ethiopia. |
title_fullStr |
Assessment of environmental contamination with soil-transmitted helminths life stages at school compounds, households and open markets in Jimma Town, Ethiopia. |
title_full_unstemmed |
Assessment of environmental contamination with soil-transmitted helminths life stages at school compounds, households and open markets in Jimma Town, Ethiopia. |
title_sort |
assessment of environmental contamination with soil-transmitted helminths life stages at school compounds, households and open markets in jimma town, ethiopia. |
publisher |
Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
publishDate |
2022 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010307 https://doaj.org/article/9b57e6268c64403795dc4b4de8164095 |
long_lat |
ENVELOPE(23.567,23.567,65.533,65.533) |
geographic |
Arctic Kap |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Kap |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, Vol 16, Iss 4, p e0010307 (2022) |
op_relation |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010307 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2727 https://doaj.org/toc/1935-2735 1935-2727 1935-2735 doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0010307 https://doaj.org/article/9b57e6268c64403795dc4b4de8164095 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010307 |
container_title |
PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
4 |
container_start_page |
e0010307 |
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1766346059880071168 |