Authors

J Musaya ¹;  ¹ Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Trust clinical research program, Malawi

Discussion

The discovery of Schistosoma hybrids in Mangochi and Nsanje Districts had brought to light a new dimension in the biology of schistosomiasis in Malawi. We believe possible Schistosoma haematobium-hybrids are able to be maintained in environmental transmission, cycling through livestock and are still able to infect people and cause disease. To understand our hypothesized casual events, we embarked on a study to assess the presence and viability of hybrids in humans, animals and snails in Mangochi and Nsanje Districts. In humans, we collect urine, stool and blood samples from 1,200 consented participants from each district, aged from 2 to 45 years of age. In animals, we collect stool and adult worms from carcasses at abattoirs. In snails, we collect them from water contact sites and expose them to light and collect emerging cercariae onto FTA cards. All urine and stool samples are inspected for eggs and isolated eggs or miracidia are fixed on FTA cards. All samples on FTA cards plus adult worms are extracted for PCR and DNA sequencing of mitochondrial cox1 and nuclear 18S/ITS regions capable of detecting hybrids and introgressed variants. We will present our preliminary results which so far show the presence of putative hybrids in humans, animals and snails. These findings call for a renewed One Health approach as the best forward looking intervention to find synergies in the control of schistosomiasis that could make tangible reduction in environmental transmission.