Discussion

The Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI) has supported the control of schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminths, using preventive chemotherapy (PC), for 14 years and has facilitated over 150 million treatments. To ensure PC is having an effective impact and to determine where challenges to successful disease control lie, SCI conducts multi-disciplinary monitoring and evaluation (M&E) with its in-country partners. Results from surveys measuring epidemiology, treatment coverage, supply and demand indicators, and economic surveys will be presented to illustrate the broad picture of how challenges and opportunities in control programmes are identified, and solutions built. Finally the importance of rigorous M&E, supplemented with operational research, in the light of the WHO resolution calling for the elimination of schistosomiasis will be discussed.