Swiss TPH Winter Symposium 2107: Helminth infection – from transmission to control

By Professor Russell Stothard

Unlike the UK where there are two schools dedicated to tropical medicine, there is only one in Switzerland and located in Basel. The Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute (Swiss TPH) is affiliated with the local university and has over 800 people from more than 70 nations working on infectious and non-communicable diseases. Internationally, the Swiss TPH has a large global foot print which has grown since its foundation in 1943.

Like the Liverpool and London Schools, the Swiss TPH has a fascinating history. Its first director – Rudolph Geigy, is widely recognised as a true pioneer of the control of vector-borne diseases. Today the institute still oversees two field stations in Côte d’Ivoire and Tanzania, originally founded as the Centre Suisse de Recherches Scientifiques (CSRS) in Adiopodoumé and the Swiss Tropical Institute Field Laboratory (STIFL) in Ifakara. The institute actively supports many interventions globally that assuage disease in low and middle-income countries.

To highlight the best of current research and control activities, each year the Swiss TPH organises a winter symposium on a topic of international interest. This year the 2-day meeting’s theme was dedicated to medical helminthology; a lot of ground was covered within a packed programme. Much of it featured implementation research that fostered interdisciplinary studies and as such, I was honoured to represent COUNTDOWN. I highlighted our research across those neglected tropical diseases amenable to preventive chemotherapy and during my keynote presentation. I discussed some of our most recent publications on gender, blogs and presentations on soil-transmitted helminthiasis and schistosomiasis as well as the growing importance of science communications in general.

With today’s changing lifestyles and needs to process information, it is critical to demonstrate how modern media tools can showcase and raise awareness of research uptake. This can be viewed as exploring a combination of new distribution channels alongside older ones that embed implementation research into adaptive health system programming and policy change. For example, I was able highlight our recent paper on WASH which was particularly opportune for our co-author Yael Vellerman was in attendance. I chaired the session where Yael presented her recent activities in WHO, whilst currently seconded from Water Aid, she discussed issues pertaining to scale-up of WASH-related interventions. I illustrated our collaborative steps, starting with platform discussions at COR-NTD, in revealing research and policy gaps. This gave better context to the need for cross-sector collaboration in development of appropriate indicators for surveillance of health and environmental change. More generally, an overview report of this meeting is featured within the Swiss TPH website likely with more detailed outputs to follow as several papers presented will later result in peer-reviewed manuscripts.

While there were many powerful examples of cross-talk and complementation of methods in implementation research, I want to highlight a few. Exciting new methods to measure children’s physical fitness and physio-social needs before and after de-worming were presented by Professor Markus Gerber; better clinical management of liver cancers alongside eco-health approaches in the environment to curtail transmission of opisthorchiasis were excellently illustrated by Professor Banchop Sripa.

From my perspective, I found this meeting a very fertile field to sow the seeds of research uptake and future collaboration which is needed to advance towards WHO 2020 targets and 2030 Sustainable Development Goals.

 

Developing the Multi-disciplinarity of Parasitology, by taking three-steps at a time

COUNTDOWN at the British Society for Parasitology Autumn Symposium, 28^th September 2017, with Lucas Cunningham, Louise Hamill, Zikmund Bartoníček, Lisa Reimer, Louis-Albert Tchuem-Tchuenté, David Molyneux, Mark Taylor, Russ Stothard

The British Society for Parasitology Autumn Symposium is an annual event which this year took place on the 28^th September 2017 in London at The Linnean Society, Burlington House. It was organised by Prof Russ Stothard and Dr Bonnie Webster, entitled “The Multidisciplinarity of Parasitology: Host-parasite evolution and control in an ever-changing world”.

The programme attempted to draw together and develop a multi-facet appraisal of the biology and control of parasites. The symposium has subsequently stimulated a meeting report and a blog on Bug Bitten on  why it is all interconnected in parasitology. Moreover, it was a convenient opportunity to feature some of COUNTDOWN’s stepwise progress in reporting our implementation research as set within the meeting’s three themes.  With just over 25 speakers and with an audience of just over one hundred, The Linnean’s auditorium was at maximum capacity; a clear evidence of the general interest in multi-disciplinarity.

Prof Stothard warmly welcomed everyone present with the simple message that ‘all living species are involved in parasitism, either as parasites or as hosts’. Indeed, this is a universal truth, for parasitism is not just a successful evolutionary strategy but is also part of a broader picture of symbiosis and part of the classification of how organisms, big or small, interact. As a metaphor, parasitism is tremendously powerful, and is regularly used in today’s language to describe significant socio-political events and processes as societies and sometimes nations negatively exploit others.

The modern agenda of parasitological research is therefore exciting, challenging and globally relevant as illustrated by Sir Roy Anderson. In the context of human disease, those parasites that typically play a detrimental role in global health are notorious, for example, malaria and the neglected tropical disease (NTD) collective are very well-known. To help guide the discussions and for convenience sake, the Autumn Symposium was split into three themes to help develop discussions in a stepwise manner.

The ‘ever changing world’ theme placed ongoing parasitological research within the new terminology of the Anthropocene and how mankind is altering global environments which may or may not favour parasitic diseases of medical, veterinary or wildlife importance. Both Prof David Molyneux and Prof Louis-Albert Tchuem-Tchuenté highlighted the challenge of NTD control against the background of planetary health, national control programmes and sustainable development goals. Both schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis are two of the most sensitive NTDs to human modifications of the environment and WASH infrastructures. For example, the building of water impoundment dams and expansion of freshwater irrigation schemes each has the potential to increase the parasite transmission, especially where urbanisation creates local water stress. Control of schistosomiasis is typically a long-haul endeavour and in recognition of his pioneering work on the epidemiology and control of schistosomiasis, David Rollinson was awarded a career medal by the International Federation for Tropical Medicine (IFTM) President, Santiago Mas-Coma.

The ‘Multidisciplinarity of Parasitology’ encouraged synergies between molecular, ecological and social science components that link parasites and hosts into a more holistic appraisal of parasitism. COUNTDOWN molecular diagnostic work was presented by Lucas Cunningham and Zikmund Bartoníček on soil-transmitted helminthiasis and schistosomiasis as speed posters alongside surveillance and control studies on onchocerciasis control in Cameroon by Louise Hammill together with community engagement activities meshed with locally appropriate vector control strategies.

The ‘host-parasite evolution and control’ recognised that parasites are not simple self-replicating automata and are very able to respond rapidly to interventions waged against them. Lisa Reimer discussed opportunities for xenomonitoring of mosquito populations for surveillance of lymphatic filariasis.  The control of many parasitic diseases is a moving target as it is a dynamic and reactive system. It has been shown in previous control campaigns that a static strategy typically founder, therefore it is important to have in place an ability to monitor the success of any particular intervention and to ensure it is best tailored to the needs of the local populace for which it serves.

During the day, topics of discussion within the three themes often blurred, and they should, as cross-talk grew. Mark Taylor, President of the BSP closed the meeting and indicated that for a successful academic career in parasitology, a portfolio of skills and approaches is needed.  To end symposium, it was very fitting to discuss many aspects of parasite evolution in The Linnean Society where Darwin and Wallace once read their papers, nearly 160 years ago. Over this time much has changed and we hope an important milestone from this meeting will be the production of a special issue of Parasitology which will leave a longer lasting footprint of how parasitism and human health are most intimately intertwined.

Find here a link to the Storify on our participation at the meeting.

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It is Global Handwashing Day! What does this mean for Neglected Tropical Diseases?

by Pamela Bongkiyung, Prof Russell Stothard, Prof Louis-Albert Tchuem Tchuente

Today Sunday, October 15th, we celebrate Global Handwashing Day, a day dedicated to global advocacy on increasing awareness and understanding on washing hands with soap, thereby preventing several communicable diseases. This awareness it is hoped will increase participation and save lives from preventable diseases.

Since the campaign launched in 2008, it has garnered enough support to be celebrated in over 100 countries with over 100 million people participating each year. The Global Handwashing Day aims to:

• Foster and support a global and local culture of handwashing with soap
• Shine a spotlight on the state of handwashing around the world
• Raise awareness about the benefits of handwashing with soap

According to a 2014 UNICEF report on Levels & Trends in Child Mortality, diarrhoea accounts for 9 per cent of leading causes of death among children under five. Each day, nearly 1,000 children die due to preventable water and sanitation-related diarrhoeal diseases. Diarrhoea is easily transmitted where poor hygiene and sanitation are rife. Pneumonia, diarrhoea and malaria accounted for 1.3 million of under-five deaths in sub-Saharan Africa and roughly half a million in Southern Asia in 2014. Accelerating the reduction in under-five mortality rates is possible through expanding preventive and remedial interventions.

As far back as 2010, UNICEF developed an advocacy pack to inform and support planning of activities to raise the profile of WASH (Water, sanitation and hygiene) in schools around the world. This pack was created as part of its campaign ‘Raising Clean Hands: Call to Action for WASH in Schools’.

But what has all this got to do with Neglected Tropical Diseases(NTDs)? For those in the NTD world, this day is of great significance as handwashing is a good habit to develop for a sustainable and long-term control on preventing infection or re-infection with diseases such as soil-transmitted helminthiasis (STH). According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), around 1.5 billion people are infected with STH worldwide. STH are caused by infection with the roundworm (Ascaris lumbricoides), whipworm (Trichuris trichiura) and hookworms (Ancylostoma duodenale or Necator americanus). They are among the commonest infections especially those living in poverty.

These STH diseases thrive in warm, tropical environments, where sanitation is inadequate. Parasite eggs and larvae are excreted in the faeces of infected individuals which contaminate the environment, particularly the soil. People are infected through ingestion of roundworm or whipworm eggs on contaminated foods or by direct skin penetration of hookworm larvae from the ground.

When individual children harbour large numbers of these worms it can lead to bowel obstruction and iron deficiency anaemia which, over time leads to malnutrition and growth impairment.

Improving hand hygiene before eating and safe disposal of faecal material is important. The 6^th goal of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) which continues the legacy of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) states: ‘ensure clean water and sanitation for all’. WHO estimates at least 1.8 billion people around the world use a source of drinking water that is contaminated by faeces. With 2.4 billion having limited to no access to basic sanitation services such as toilets or latrines, we can see how lasting control of STH is a challenge.

Reason why handwashing and WASH in general are crucial to the elimination of NTDs. The latest Guideline: preventive Chemotherapy to control soil-transmitted helminth infections in at-risk population groups published by WHO last month, emphasises long-term solutions to STH require improvements in water, sanitation and hygiene. The Fourth WHO Report on Neglected Tropical Diseases titled ‘Integrating Neglected Tropical Diseases into Global Health and Development‘, indicates that providing safe water, sanitation and hygiene is critical for preventing and providing care for most NTDs but tends to be neglected relative to its importance. The report warns that without concerted effort to improve access to safe WASH, diseases will return to higher prevalence levels.

The COUNTDOWN programme which is multidisciplinary in its make-up has tackled this issue by participating in discussions with intersectoral partners to engage in knowledge-brokering and taking a collaborative approach to knowledge share in the process. In the current health environment where capacities are distributed, coming together to seek solutions to universal problems such as these, is paramount. The COUNTDOWN team has recently published a paper in Trends in Parasitology entitled “Tailoring water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) targets for soil-transmitted helminthiasis and schistosomiasis control.”

You can read more from COUNTDOWN relating to STH here.

How can you participate in the global handwashing movement? Choose from this Lazy Person’s Guide to Saving the World or share with us your experiences working in this sector in the comment section and join us on social media for further interactions.

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Partner Website: http://countdowncameroon.org/

 

Molecular Tools for Helminth Control and Elimination: Time to Get them Out of the Laboratory, into Programmes and Policies?

By Corrado Minetti

On my way back from Ghana, where we have been testing the molecular protocols for the detection of filarial parasites in mosquitoes, in the laboratory of Mike Osei-Atweneboana at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in Accra; I had some thoughts about how far molecular diagnostics has come but also questioned how can we make it a sustainable reality to assist effectively in disease control and elimination.

DNA extraction from pooled mosquitoes for the detection of filarial worms (on the left) and an example of amplification of parasite DNA (+) with the LAMP method (on the right) (Photo: Corrado Minetti)

In order to achieve the goals of the London Declaration on Neglected Tropical Diseases for the effective and sustainable control and long term elimination of Lymphatic Filariasis, onchocerciasis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis and schistosomiasis; the deployment of appropriate diagnostic tools is crucial at every stage of these disease control and elimination programmes from initial mapping to post-elimination surveillance. With the rapidly changing epidemiological scenario of these diseases due to the scaling up of mass drug administration, and the push towards more sustainable and cost-effective multi-disease interventions, the implementation of more sensitive and cost-effective diagnostic tools is a priority well recognized and advocated by the World Health organization.

Molecular diagnostics tools, including (multiplex) real-time polymerase chain reaction and more recent isothermal amplification assays such as loop-mediated isothermal amplification and recombinase polymerase amplification do offer increased sensitivity compared to traditional approaches but they are yet to be used in control and elimination programmes due to their cost and technical requirements. There are various gaps that need to be highlighted and solved in order to allow these approaches to become potentially embedded into disease control programmes & policies, and to inform decision-making.

In order to identify these much-needed gaps, we have recently published a review paper where we compared the features of published real-time PCR and isothermal amplification assays for the detection of Lymphatic Filariasis, onchocerciasis, soil-transmitted helminthiasis and schistosomiasis in clinical and vector/intermediate host samples. Despite the availability of a wide range of assays for both patient diagnosis and xenomonitoring (parasite detection in insect vectors or snails), little or no research has been devoted to estimate the real costs and logistics of implementing these approaches on a wider scale for control and elimination. We highlight the need for a major focus on the implementation aspects of these tools in developing countries, and how barriers for their full adoption in resource-poor settings could be overcome. Key issues are the technical requirements and the related need for capacity building, the abatement of costs and the economic sustainability of molecular screening over time. For example, diagnosing multiple parasites from the same clinical sample can heavily reduce the number of samples that a community may need to provide, resulting in a far less invasive procedure for the communities, as well as reducing significantly the cost of processing. A multi-disease approach to diagnostics will certainly benefit the health system as well, both logistically and economically.

Writing this review paper has been extremely valuable to get a clearer picture of the progress in the field so far and to identify the best and most cost-effective diagnostic approaches for our project. In a broader sense and within the COUNTDOWN research consortium, we hope this review could serve as a starting point of discussion in the NTDs control and elimination community, leading to a more comprehensive analysis of what molecular diagnostics can offer and how we can make sure these tools can finally get out from the laboratory becoming embedded into policy, to strengthen disease control and elimination programmes and the health system itself.

Find more information on COUNTDOWN’s activities visit us here.

COUNTDOWN goes Down Under for ICTMM 2016

By Prof. Russ Stothard, COUNTDOWN

Efforts to control NTDs typically require advice, support and coordination from several international networks. Like tropical medicine in general, the need to bring scientists and clinicians together regularly and discuss their findings is crucial to ensure that the best research is disseminated internationally and eventually translated into optimal control strategies. The International Congress for Tropical Medicine and Malaria (ICTMM) provides such a forum.

This year the 19^th ICTMM took place from 18^th to 22^nd September in Brisbane, Australia. This brought together just over 1,500 delegates. The meeting was jointly organised by the Australian Society for Parasitology (ASP) and the Australasian Society for Infectious Diseases (ASID). I was especially honoured to be awarded a travelling lectureship from the ASP to present and also visit research groups in Australia to instigate future collaboration. This I did by visiting the laboratories of Robin Gasser and Don McManus at the University of Melbourne and Queens Institute of Medical Research (QIMR), Brisbane. Robin and Don each have a tremendous stature in veterinary and medical parasitology, respectively. Both seamlessly blend state-of-the-art molecular studies with field studies and have had significant research programmes advancing the health and well-being of those living in the tropics.

In Melbourne, I gave a departmental seminar and was able to discuss with Robin and his team our ongoing and future work in Ghana and Cameroon. The Gasser lab has been pioneering molecular surveillance of helminth diseases for over thirty years and one of their recent milestones was made by Dr Neil Young in publishing the genome of Schistosoma haematobium.  This Nature publication was a tremendous achievement bringing new focus to the control of urogenital schistosomiasis in Africa. Better knowledge of this genome has opened up new ways to study the population biology of this parasite, often revealing how it is able to cause such ill-health across the continent. Furthermore, a precise knowledge of this genome allows us to monitor significant evolutionary changes which may occur to mitigate our efforts to control it with preventive chemotherapy.

In Brisbane, I attended the ICTMM meeting and gave a keynote presentation on schistosomiasis, reporting our recent findings in Cameroon at Barombi Kotto and Mbo, as well as, two other presentations on treatment of pre-school-aged children with intestinal schistosomiasis and management of co-infections of schistosomiasis and giardiasis. Whilst at the conference our viewpoint article was published . It was a timely reminder of how much future work is needed to expand access of praziquantel to those children currently overlooked within control programmes.

Suzy Campbell gave a presentation on the focus of her PhD studies on WASH (Water, Sanitation and Hygiene) for Soil-Transmitted Helminthiasis (STH). It was also a great honour for me to be invited to serve on the IFTM expanded board so we can look forward to 20^th ICTMM in 2020 hosted by the Parasitology and Tropical Medicine Association of Thailand.

A particular highlight was learning from Don the steps that his group had taken to develop and evaluate public health education materials used for control of soil-transmitted helminthiasis in China. I recommend that you view the ‘Magic Glasses’ animation and its associated impact has been reported in the New England Journal of Medicine. More broadly, we do not have adequate nor sufficient health education materials presently for use in African schools for several other NTDs. My own previous research on schistosomiasis in Zanzibar has shown that innovative approaches are very much needed to addressing this aspect of influencing positive behavioural change.

A Focus on Schistosomiasis and Soil-Transmitted Helminthiasis in Crater Lakes in Cameroon

By Deborah Sankey, Tim Day and Faye O’Hallaron

This blog describes some of the highlights and challenges of our work with Louis-Albert Tchuem-Tchuenté in Cameroon. We were privileged to learn a great deal about the day-to-day realities and practicalities of interventions against Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTD). Our experiences generated more stories than we have time to tell, but here is a brief overview about lakes Barombi Mbo and Kotto. We hope you enjoy reading this as much as we enjoyed our work with the team there.

Having attended several planning meetings and gaining local permissions in Kumba; our first day in the field involved getting ourselves and all our equipment to our first field site – the crater lake of Barombi Mbo. Getting there was challenging and our journey involved a one -hour commute each way in local hand-paddled canoes but was set within breath-taking scenery. We arrived on the other side of the lake and walked through the surrounding cocoa farms- the most valuable commodity of the region – to the village itself. After greeting several village elders, we were taken directly to the chief’s house to discuss our work. We requested their permissions and support to help us conduct our surveys and interviews.

At this point the team split, half going back to the lake in search of aquatic snails and the remainder based inside the village church hall to begin collection of samples and conduct interviews by questionnaire. As the community rushed to be involved, our workload on the first day was greater than expected. We faced challenges in French-speaking situations.  Meanwhile on the lake the malacological team were working under the full might of the African sun. Wearing their armour of waders and sporting only a simple kitchen sieve (Sainsbury’s RRP £4.99) and a pair of tweezers, the intrepid team delved into the shallows in search of the miniscule molluscs.

After both teams had completed their quota of samples for the day (the importance of applied statistics for you!), we regrouped and made our way back to Kumba setting to work analysing all our samples.

Several further days were spent in Barombi Mbo following a similar pattern of work, before moving on to our second study site Barombi Kotto. At Kotto, due to its rural location, we stayed in the vicinity of the second lake for the duration of the survey. This involved a three-hour journey along mud tracks, which was tricky even when dry and almost impassable on our return visit where two vehicles had succumbed to the mud.

We set up the lab in the local health centre, and were pleased to see a modern looking lab with clean white tiles and all the mod cons, minus however running water and electricity! Each day we collected water from the local stream and we had the foresight to bring a portable generator. Using this within the health centre meant entertainment was on hand for while we worked. The surrounding children could watch DVD films in the evening and adults charge phones in the health centre while we beavered away in the laboratory until the late hours of the evening. Deborah and Faye, being women, were lucky enough to enjoy the hospitality of a local family living within their vicinity. Tim and the male staff took up residence in the abandoned maternity ward. The family welcomed us with great kindness, cooking for us excellent meals every day, and ensuring we had everything we needed, we even joined the family for morning prayers.

The days followed a similar pattern of questionnaires, sample collection, and then analysis. The main difference was that the majority of the population lived in an isolated community on an island in the middle of the Lake Kotto. Unlike the clear waters of Mbo, the lake was smaller and much less enticing. The canoes were very rickety, made of half a hollowed-out tree patched-up with cement, making for interesting journeys across the lake. This community were less accustomed to foreign visitors and our supervisor was invited to spend a night on the island. We were lucky enough to be told stories by the community elders about the village’s history. It gave us a greater insight into the local culture and traditions and just how important the water of the lake was to their community identity and beliefs.

We faced many challenges throughout our trip and were pushed to our limit physically, mentally and digestively. With team work and perseverance we achieved our goals. We learned more than we can convey.

Read more

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