Infection of Plasmodium falciparum and helminths among school children in communities in Southern and Northern Ghana

Background

Infections of Plasmodium species, Schistosoma species and soil-transmitted helminths (STH) inflict a significant burden on children mostly in deprived communities in Ghana. Despite the deployment of malaria vector control and the annual Mass Drug Administration by National Control Programmes, these infections still pose major public health concerns in Ghana. Some remote communities which are hard-to-reach are not covered by MDA campaigns which is a major challenge to meeting elimination targets. Adequate data is necessary for formulating policies and strengthening interventions to mitigate transmission. This study assessed the infection burden of Plasmodium, Schistosoma species and STH infections among school children in communities in Southern and Northern Ghana.

Method

School children living in communities in Southern (Ada Foah, Pediatorkope, Tuanikope) and Northern (Kpalsogu) Ghana were enrolled in a cross-sectional study. A total of 493 (241 males and 252 females) school children aged (2–15 years) were enrolled in the study. Stool samples were collected to screen for Schistosoma mansoni and STH infections using the formol-ether concentration technique and urine samples were also collected to screen for S. haematobium using the routine urine examination method. Plasmodium parasitaemia was determined from thick and thin finger-prick blood samples.

Results

Overall, the prevalence of P. falciparum, S. mansoni, S. haematobium, Trichuris trichiura and hookworm infections were 17.2% (95%CI 12.8–19.7), 22.6% (95%CI 25.2–32.7), 1.6% (95%CI 0.89–5.2), 1.2% (95%CI 0.78–4.8) and 1.2% (95%CI 0.78–4.8) respectively. Plasmodium falciparum infection was generally widespread in all the study sites with Ada Foah recording the highest prevalence (35.3%) and Kpalsogu recording the lowest (5.8%). Schistosoma mansoni was present in only two Southern communities with Tuanikope recording the highest prevalence of 70.3% as against 51.5% recorded in Pediatorkope. A total of 4.5% (95% CI 2.82–10.8) of the children were co-infected with P. falciparum, Schistosoma species and STHs. This occurred only in the Southern communities; of which combination of P. falciparum and S. mansoni were predominant (1.4%).

Conclusion

A relatively low burden of parasites co-infection among children only in the Southern communities was detected. However, there were a high prevalence of single infections of P. falciparum and S. mansoni in those communities. Control measures for the helminths needs to be restarted in the island communities with a high burden of S. mansoni infections and that of Plasmodium needs to be scaled up in Ada Foah where P. falciparum infections were high.

Abstract P2-14-03: Novel visualization tools to search ongoing clinical trials and track trial results for metastatic breast cancer

Metastatic breast cancer (MBC) remains a terminal illness and is the cause of virtually all breast cancer deaths. The median survival for patients with MBC in the US is approximately 3 years from time of stage IV diagnosis. People living with MBC are in urgent need of new treatment options once current therapies no longer keep the disease under control. Access to new treatments is often through clinical trials. We have developed a novel way to visualize active clinical trials and track trial results. Methods: Clinical trials were queried from Clinicaltrials.gov and the National Cancer Institute. Trials were categorized by breast cancer subtype, line of therapy, hallmark of cancer, sponsor, phase, sample size and compound. A bubble chart was created to display data triplets (x, y, z) corresponding to three continuous variables: x and y to define the position, and z, the radius of each bubble. In our example, x and y coordinates are optimized according to an algorithm that essentially balances the bubble's gravity (i.e., action of moving towards the center of the plot), friction (i.e., velocity decay) and charge (or repulsion/attraction force). This layout is frequently used for network visualization. In addition to x, y and z, it is possible to encode other information. Results: We identified 204 clinical trials actively recruiting patients with MBC. The current webpage (www.mbcalliance.org) displays clinical trial data from 204 clinical trials in six different ways. Trials actively recruiting patients will be updated quarterly. In addition to data triplets (x, y and z) we encoded other information about trials using a color code to add three additional dimensions: phase, breast cancer subtype and sponsor type. When a user hovers over a bubble, key information about the clinical trial extracted from Clinicaltrials.gov is displayed. When a user clicks on the bubble, the user is directed to the corresponding landing page at BreastCancerTrials.org to access detailed trial information. We are employing a similar coding scheme and display characteristics for completed clinical trials results. Conclusions: We have developed a user-friendly, web tool to quickly sort and visualize ongoing clinical trials and results for completed trials to benefit both MBC patients and research scientists.

Citation Format: Kumar M, Kissoon K, Abdulai AR, De La Torre K, Flowers M, Cohen E, Colen S, Mercier JB, Hurlbert M. Novel visualization tools to search ongoing clinical trials and track trial results for metastatic breast cancer [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 2016 San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium; 2016 Dec 6-10; San Antonio, TX. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2017;77(4 Suppl):Abstract nr P2-14-03.

Conservation programmes for African cattle: design, cost and benefits

Information on costs and benefits of conservation programmes for cattle is scarce in the literature and mainly available for Europe. This study aims at simulating cost of and benefits from different kinds of conservation programmes designed for indigenous African cattle. The programmes include installation of a herdbook and activities to promote the breed (HB), in situ conservation with a sire rotation scheme (IS), cryoconservation of semen (CC) and CC combined with in situ conservation (IC). The results indicate that cost of the analysed conservation programmes was generally higher than those reported in the literature for comparable schemes. If cost per effective population size conserved is considered, programmes analysed in this study do not appear to be more expensive. The proposed rotation scheme in IS can be applied to many different production systems and prove to be effective with regard to low increase in kinship. Reduction in extinction probability is found to be higher for conservation programmes that strongly involve farmers and give them part of the responsibility for the breeding population. IC was most efficient with regard to cost per effective population size conserved. However, if cost per reduction in endangerment is considered as criterion for the efficiency of a programme, IS, HB and CC are superior to IC. These findings suggest that decisions on conservation programmes should be based on multiple criteria, and not just on cost per effective population size.