| Content Provider |
World Health Organization (WHO)-Global Index Medicus |
| Author |
Huttinger, Elizabeth Sokolow, Susanne H. Riveau, Gilles Faye, Djibril Sarr Hsieh, Michael H. De Leo, Giulio A. Senghor, Simon Jouanard, Nicolas Lafferty, Kevin D. N'diaye, Alassane Thiam, Cheikh Kuris, Armand M. |
| Description |
Author Affiliation: Sokolow SH ( Department of Biology, Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, Pacific Grove, CA 93950); Huttinger E ( 20); 20 Initiative, Pasadena, CA 91105; Jouanard N ( 20); 20 Initiative, Pasadena, CA 91105; Hsieh MH ( Department of Urology, School of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, CA 94304); Lafferty KD ( US Geological Survey, Western Ecological Research Center, Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106); Kuris AM ( Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Marine Biology and Marine Science Institute, University of California, Santa Barbara, CA 93106); Riveau G ( Centre d'Infection et d'Immunité de Lille, Institut Pasteur de Lille, 59019 Lille, France); Senghor S ( Espoir pour la Santé, Laboratoire de Recherches Biomédicales, BP 226 Saint-Louis, Senegal.); Thiam C ( 20); 20 Initiative, Pasadena, CA 91105; N'Diaye A ( 20); 20 Initiative, Pasadena, CA 91105; Faye DS ( 20); 20 Initiative, Pasadena, CA 91105; De Leo GA ( Department of Biology, Hopkins Marine Station, Stanford University, Pacific Grove, CA 93950); |
| Abstract |
Eliminating human parasitic disease often requires interrupting complex transmission pathways. Even when drugs to treat people are available, disease control can be difficult if the parasite can persist in nonhuman hosts. Here, we show that restoration of a natural predator of a parasite's intermediate hosts may enhance drug-based schistosomiasis control. Our study site was the Senegal River Basin, where villagers suffered a massive outbreak and persistent epidemic after the 1986 completion of the Diama Dam. The dam blocked the annual migration of native river prawns (Macrobrachium vollenhoveni) that are voracious predators of the snail intermediate hosts for schistosomiasis. We tested schistosomiasis control by reintroduced river prawns in a before-after-control-impact field experiment that tracked parasitism in snails and people at two matched villages after prawns were stocked at one village's river access point. The abundance of infected snails was 80% lower at that village, presumably because prawn predation reduced the abundance and average life span of latently infected snails. As expected from a reduction in infected snails, human schistosomiasis prevalence was 18 ± 5% lower and egg burden was 50 ± 8% lower at the prawn-stocking village compared with the control village. In a mathematical model of the system, stocking prawns, coupled with infrequent mass drug treatment, eliminates schistosomiasis from high-transmission sites. We conclude that restoring river prawns could be a novel contribution to controlling, or eliminating, schistosomiasis. |
| ISSN |
00278424 |
| e-ISSN |
10916490 |
| Journal |
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America |
| Issue Number |
31 |
| Volume Number |
112 |
| Language |
English |
| Publisher |
National Academy of Sciences |
| Publisher Date |
2015-08-01 |
| Publisher Place |
United States |
| Access Restriction |
Open |
| Subject Keyword |
Biomphalaria Parasitology Palaemonidae Physiology Schistosomiasis Transmission Adolescent Animals Child, Preschool Host-Parasite Interactions Models, Biological Predatory Behavior Schistosoma Epidemiology Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't Research Support, U.S. Gov't, Non-P.H.S. Multidisciplinary |
| Content Type |
Text |
| Resource Type |
Article |
| Subject |
Multidisciplinary |
