Authors

R Stothard³; S Kayuni¹; M Al-Harbi³; A Juhasz¹; L Cunningham¹; S Jones¹; J Archer¹; P Makaula⁴; EJ Lacourse²; J Musaya⁵;  ¹ Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK;  ² Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine / UoL, UK;  ³ LSTM, UK;  ⁴ Research in Health, Environment and Development (RHED), Malawi;  ⁵ MLW, UK

Discussion

In April 2021, a new 4-year investigation officially started exploring the importance of hybrid schistosomes in Malawi. The Wellcome Trust funded study entitled "HUGS: Hybridisation in urogenital schistosomiasis" is a collaboration between LSTM and MLW/CoM. Owing to COVID, initial fieldwork planned for July was postponed but an appropriate window of opportunity later opened in October. This was also coordinated around newly re-started mass drug administration campaigns within the country. In this presentation, I briefly review previous studies on male genital schistosomiasis and medical malacology along Lake Malawi, alongside newly updated WHO guidelines for schistosomiasis control. I present preliminary findings of ongoing HUGS work ,along the lake's shoreline and that of the Lower Shire River, to highlight the growing importance of hybrid schistosomes within transmission of urogenital (and intestinal) schistosomiasis in Central Africa.