title: Urinary schistosomiasis among preschool-aged children in Sahelian rural communities in Mali.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Mass chemotherapy with praziquantel is the main control strategy for schistosomiasis in Mali. However, in the national control programme for schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis, infants and preschool-aged children are overlooked in preventive chemotherapy campaigns. We therefore determined the prevalence and intensity of urinary schistosomiasis in children between the ages 1-4 years in three villages across Diema health district, a rural community with endemic schistosomiasis in Mali. For Schistosoma haematobium diagnosis, a single urine sample of 10 ml obtained from each child was subjected to the standard urine filtration method.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 338 children examined 173 (51.2%) were infected. Both prevalence and intensity of infection varied significantly between communities (p < 0.01). There was no significant difference (p = 0.94) in infection rates between boys (51.2%) and girls (50.3%). Likewise, prevalence did not significantly increase with age (p = 0.86). The overall geometric mean of Williams (GMw) was 18.41 eggs/10 ml urine, with no significant association (p = 0.91) between boys (17.48 eggs/10 ml urine) and girls (19.69 eggs/10 ml urine). However, the GMw significantly increased with age (p = 0.04). Infection of preschool children would occur through early exposure to infected water bodies through both passive and active process.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Our study showed that preschool children living closely to lakes across in Mali are at high risk to be infected by schistosomiasis and contributed largely to the transmission; therefore schistosomiasis control interventions should also target infants in addition to school children and adults in endemic areas.
authors.affiliation: Department of Epidemiology of Infectious Diseases, Faculty of Medicine, Pharmacy and Dentistry, University of Bamako, Box 1805, Bamako, Mali. adabo@icermali.org
authors.forename: Abdoulaye
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dabo
authors.forename: Haroun Mahamat
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Badawi
authors.forename: Boubacar
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Bary
authors.forename: Ogobara K
authors.initials: OK
authors.lastname: Doumbo
mesh_terms: D017677:Age Distribution; D000818:Animals; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D005843:Geography; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008297:Male; D008302:Mali / Q000453:epidemiology; D015995:Prevalence; D012424:Rural Population; D012548:Schistosoma haematobium / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D012553:Schistosomiasis haematobia / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000469:parasitology; D017678:Sex Distribution; D014556:Urine / Q000469:parasitology