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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Validation of the rapid assessment procedure for loiasis (RAPLOA) in the democratic republic of CongoS
AU - Wanji, Samuel
AU - Akotshi, Dowo O.
AU - Mutro, Maurice N.
AU - Tepage, Floribert
AU - Ukety, Tony O.
AU - Diggle, Peter J.
AU - Remme, Jan H.
N1 - © 2012 Wanji et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
PY - 2012/2/2
Y1 - 2012/2/2
N2 - Background: A simple method called RAPLOA, to rapidly assess what proportion of people in a community are infected with L. loa and hence which communities are at high risk of severe adverse reactions following ivermectin treatment, was developed in Cameroon and Nigeria. The method needed further validation in other geographical and cultural contexts before its application in all endemic countries. The present study was designed to validate RAPLOA in two regions in the North East and South West of the Democratic Republic of Congo.Methods: In each study region, villages were selected from different bio-ecological zones in order to cover a wide range of loiasis endemicity. In each selected community, 80 people above the age of 15 years were interviewed for a history of eye worm (migration of adult L. loa under the conjunctiva of the eye) and parasitologically examined for the presence and intensity of L. loa infection. In total, 8100 individuals from 99 villages were enrolled into the study.Results: The results confirmed the findings of the original RAPLOA study: i) the eye worm phenomenon was well-known in all endemic areas, ii) there was a clear relationship between the prevalence of eye worm history and the prevalence and intensity of L. loa microfilaraemia, and iii) using a threshold of 40%, the prevalence of eye worm history was a sensitive and specific indicator of high-risk communities.Conclusion: Following this successful validation, RAPLOA was recommended for the assessment of loiasis endemicity in areas targeted for ivermectin treatment by lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis control programmes.
AB - Background: A simple method called RAPLOA, to rapidly assess what proportion of people in a community are infected with L. loa and hence which communities are at high risk of severe adverse reactions following ivermectin treatment, was developed in Cameroon and Nigeria. The method needed further validation in other geographical and cultural contexts before its application in all endemic countries. The present study was designed to validate RAPLOA in two regions in the North East and South West of the Democratic Republic of Congo.Methods: In each study region, villages were selected from different bio-ecological zones in order to cover a wide range of loiasis endemicity. In each selected community, 80 people above the age of 15 years were interviewed for a history of eye worm (migration of adult L. loa under the conjunctiva of the eye) and parasitologically examined for the presence and intensity of L. loa infection. In total, 8100 individuals from 99 villages were enrolled into the study.Results: The results confirmed the findings of the original RAPLOA study: i) the eye worm phenomenon was well-known in all endemic areas, ii) there was a clear relationship between the prevalence of eye worm history and the prevalence and intensity of L. loa microfilaraemia, and iii) using a threshold of 40%, the prevalence of eye worm history was a sensitive and specific indicator of high-risk communities.Conclusion: Following this successful validation, RAPLOA was recommended for the assessment of loiasis endemicity in areas targeted for ivermectin treatment by lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis control programmes.
KW - RAPLOA
KW - Ioiasis
KW - ivermectin
KW - onchocerciasis
KW - lymphatic filariasis
U2 - 10.1186/1756-3305-5-25
DO - 10.1186/1756-3305-5-25
M3 - Journal article
VL - 5
SP - -
JO - Parasites and Vectors
JF - Parasites and Vectors
SN - 1756-3305
M1 - 25
ER -