title: Polymerase chain reaction pool screening used to compare prevalence of infective black flies in two onchocerciasis foci in northern Sudan.
abstract: Onchocerciasis remains an important debilitating disease in many areas of Africa, including Sudan. The status of infection transmission in 2007 was assessed in the vectors of two disease foci in Sudan: Abu Hamed in northern Sudan, which has received at least 10 years of annual treatment and Galabat focus in eastern Sudan, where only minor, largely undocumented treatment activity has occurred. Assessment of more than 30,000 black flies for Onchocerca volvulus infectious stage L3 larvae by using an O-150 polymerase chain reaction protocol showed that black fly infectivity rates were 0.84 (95% confidence interval = 0.0497-1.88) per 10,000 flies for Abu Hamed and 6.9 (95% confidence interval = 1.1-16.4) infective flies per 10,000 for Galabat. These results provide entomologic evidence for suppressed Onchocerca volvulus transmission in the Abu Hamed focus and a moderate transmission rate of the parasite in the Galabat focus.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biological Sciences, Ohio University, 1425 Newark Road, Zanesville, OH 43701, USA. higazi@ohio.edu
authors.forename: Tarig B
authors.initials: TB
authors.lastname: Higazi
authors.forename: Isam M A
authors.initials: IM
authors.lastname: Zarroug
authors.forename: Hanan A
authors.initials: HA
authors.lastname: Mohamed
authors.forename: Wigdan A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Elmubark
authors.forename: Wigdan A
authors.initials: WA
authors.lastname: Mohamed
authors.forename: Tong Chor M
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Deran
authors.forename: Nabil
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Aziz
authors.forename: Moses
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Katabarwa
authors.forename: Hassan K
authors.initials: HK
authors.lastname: Hassan
authors.forename: Thomas R
authors.initials: TR
authors.lastname: Unnasch
authors.forename: Charles D
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Mackenzie
authors.forename: Frank
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Richards
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004175:Diptera / Q000469:parasitology*; D006801:Humans; D007303:Insect Vectors; D017181:Onchocerca volvulus / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity*; D009855:Onchocerciasis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000635:transmission; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012621:Seasons; D013397:Sudan / Q000453:epidemiology