In the rice-growing regions around Lake Victoria in Tanzania, water is at the heart of work, food and life. “Cooking, washing clothes, drinking, bathing and farming – all depend on water,” says Maswali Ngelela, a rice farmer who lives in Sengerema District on the lake’s southern shore. “Water is life. Not just often – every day.”
Each morning, Maswali and his children wade through rice paddies to tend to their crops. Every time they do, they’re exposed to an invisible danger.
Schistosomiasis is an ever-present threat here. Maswali and at least three of his children have previously contracted the disease. Caused by water-based parasites, its symptoms include severe pain, organ damage and infertility if left untreated. In children, it stunts development, disrupts schooling and raises the risk of contracting other diseases.
Maswali knows he can’t keep his children away from water entirely. Despite this, he predicts his children will grow up at less risk from schistosomiasis than he did.
Historically, there hasn’t been a treatment specifically tailored for preschool-aged children, but now a child-friendly medicine has arrived. Its delivery is part of a pilot programme that is also helping communities understand how schistosomiasis spreads and how to reduce the risk of infection. Together, the programme’s treatment, education and prevention work aims to reduce the burden of the disease.
“Being a Tanzanian, and for that matter a research scientist, it’s my duty to study the problems of our people,” says programme leader Paul Kazyoba, chief research scientist at Tanzania’s National Institute for Medical Research. The pilot’s success is the culmination of more than a decade’s fieldwork by Kazyoba and his colleagues. “My focus and passion is to work directly with the community, because that’s where you see the real impact,” he says.
Maswali NgelelaFirst of all, water is life. But I've seen how much water can be harmful to my family. I understand more about how schistosomiasis is spread, and now I know there is medicine available from the clinic. Every day when I wake up, I have to go to the rice field. And in order to get there, I have to walk through water. As part of my farming responsibilities, I take my children with me, to help with the farm work. They come into contact with water every day, whether they're coming back from farming, washing and bathing. I really can't tell whether water is free from schistosomiasis because I don't have the means to test whether it's safe or not. My child, he came to me and said, "Dad, I feel pain when I urinate." I had to take him to a health facility for an examination and I was told that he had schistosomiasis. Three children have suffered from schistosomiasis. I feel very sad because these children are part of my family and help me with everything, and they were sick.
Paul KazyobaSchistosomiasis is a parasitic disease caused by worms. Under the microscope schistosomiasis looks like this, and they have a very different head end, and then they also have other structures which make them look peculiar compared to earthworms. Some eggs are also different. They are oval, but with the spine. For schistosomiasis to be actively transmitted it needs one to be in contact with infected water. The interface between freshwater snail and human. That's where the infection happens. It enters into the freshwater snails and hatches into larvae. And then the snail will be shedding out the larvae into the water body. This innocent snail doesn't know that it's perpetuating the transmission of schistosomiasis. There are several consequences when one contracts schistosomiasis. For children, one of the negative impacts is stunting, because the blood-sucking worms deplete micronutrients in the body. A child with schistosomiasis is likely to suffer from malaria easily. And then we have evidence of bladder cancer when people grow older. In the past, many people didn't consider schistosomiasis as the disease which can affect children under the age of six. Around 2010, researchers working on schistosomiasis started shouting about: "Hey guys, even children under the age of six contract schistosomiasis. They play in the same environment. They go with their parents in their farms, so they are equally exposed. So it's worth considering these folks in the treatment programme." So it took over 12 years to gather evidence, interact with public health specialists, everyone to contribute their thinking. And that demonstrates the commitment the Wellcome Trust has in advancing public health in the world. Now under-six children are being properly included in the guidance. It's my duty to study the problems of our people. We developed the project which had several phases. We are terribly excited as a team, being among the very first public health institutions in the world to deliver the new drug to its citizens. When we received the first consignment of the new drug, it was like a far-fetched dream. When we look at the old praziquantel compared to the paediatric tablets, the biggest difference, number one, is the size. Number two is how easy it is for the tablet to dissolve. The old praziquantel doesn't dissolve easily in water. The new formulation dissolves very quickly. The other biggest difference is the taste. The old praziquantel is bitter. The new formulation for paediatrics is sweet. Kids are swallowing the medicine without any problem. You don't see them squeezing their face because of the taste. The consortium which develops the new drug is called the Paediatric Praziquantel Consortium. The consortium has successfully closed the treatment gap, and it is one of the best milestones ever. All these things have been made possible because of partnership. By treating schistosomiasis at the early ages, it improves the health, well-being of the children and their growth. So they would develop well. They will reach their full potential and be good citizens. There's still a lot of work to be done, mostly on community education; there's the social intervention. That's number one. So I'm not a kind of researcher who would want to sit in the office all the time. I've done community engagement. I've gone to all the sites. The community members, most of them aren't aware of the life cycle of schistosomiasis. You see a colony of snails. I'm trying to see whether we may have an active transmission. So now we have a strategy involving a community of workers. They hold meetings. They speak about the symptoms of schistosomiasis in children and take the children to treatment.
Maswali NgelelaI'm very happy because I received education about schistosomiasis. And my family has received treatment and were given medication. I hope to live a life free from disease, free from schistosomiasis. And my family will live a very good life.
Paul KazyobaWe're already seeing the impact, the demand. The community is happy. The intervention has reached the target and we are collecting more evidence to help our government and other countries in the region. So it's a great moment and is one of the biggest milestones in my career.
Globally, around 250 million people are affected by schistosomiasis, with roughly 90 percent of cases in sub-Saharan Africa. Despite the huge numbers at risk, the disease has long been underfunded and underprioritised. There’s no vaccine and only one treatment.
The disease is caused by parasitic worms whose larvae are released into freshwater by infected snails. When people come into contact with contaminated water, the larvae penetrate the skin, enter the bloodstream and mature into adult worms. The worms lay eggs that can cause inflammation and long-term damage to organs. Some eggs are passed in urine or faeces, where they can contaminate freshwater sources and continue the transmission cycle. Transmission is therefore closely linked to inadequate access to safe water and sanitation.
For years the sole drug that can clear people of worms – praziquantel – was largely given only to adults and over-fives. Its safety hadn’t been established in younger children, who also weren’t deemed to be at high risk from schistosomiasis. “There was originally this idea that the burden was highest in those that are over five,” says Sally Nicholas, head of vector control and therapeutics at Wellcome. This was a mistake.
In communities with lots of water contact, children “all face the same risk” regardless of age, says Kazyoba. In fact, because younger children’s skin isn’t as strong, they are especially vulnerable to infection.
Catching schistosomiasis young can cause life-long problems. The worms deplete micronutrients, stunting growth and causing anaemia, and infections can lead to bladder cancer when children get older. “There’s also vulnerability to other infectious diseases, because your body’s immune defence system becomes weak,” Kazyoba says. A child with schistosomiasis is more likely to suffer from malaria, for example.
In endemic regions, parents live in constant fear of their children falling ill. “My wife was deeply upset and worried about why our children kept getting sick,” says Maswali, reflecting on his children’s infections. “It was very painful for the family.”
From the turn of the millennium, evidence was building that preschool-aged children were getting the disease. This included the Wellcome-funded SIMI cohort study that ran between 2008 and 2012 in Uganda, which clearly showed that preschoolers were catching schistosomiasis. Subsequent research in Malawi reinforced this.
This contributed to the World Health Organization shifting its policy in 2010–11 to recommend that preschool-aged children be included in treatment programmes. But this underlined another problem: there wasn’t a form of praziquantel suitable for preschool-aged children.
By now studies had shown the drug was safe to give to the very young and that it cleared them of parasites. But praziquantel came as a 600 mg tablet. This dose is too large for infants, and very young children can’t swallow pills. “Among children under the age of six, we were breaking the tablet into four, and then crushing it,” Kazyoba recalls of early efforts to treat preschoolers. The powder was then dissolved in water, but this resulted in an unpalatable, bitter medicine.
“Children don’t eat bitter things,” Kazyoba says. “They want to eat something which is sweet.”
With a clear unmet need, industry and public organisations came together to find a solution, also with the support of international funders such as the European Union (through EDCTP) and the Global Health Innovative Technology (GHIT) Fund - backed by the Government of Japan, the Gates Foundation, Wellcome Trust and others – and worked together to implement the programme of thePediatric Praziquantel Consortiumwhich was established in 2012.
Having this medicine is only part of the solution. “The effort will be worthless if the uptake is low,” Kazyoba says. For this reason he is leading a UN-backed project called STEPPS – Strategies for the Delivery and Evaluation of Paediatric Praziquantel in Schistosomiasis – to ensure the drug has the biggest possible impact.
The programme is training health workers in Tanzania on schistosomiasis, integrating diagnosis and treatment into routine health services, and testing the best ways to deliver paediatric praziquantel, such as through test-and-treat programmes or preschool mass drug administration. Moving care into routine services will make diagnosis and treatment more consistent – but this only works if staff are trained and tools are available.
On top of figuring out how best to deliver the treatment, STEPPS is also educating the public about schistosomiasis, and in particular about infections in the very young – “knowledge that in the past was completely lacking,” says Kazyoba.
This community engagement work is helping people take practical steps to protect themselves – such as wearing boots and protective clothing when exposed to water. It’s also helping parents seek care quicker when children present with symptoms. Uptake of paediatric praziquantel is higher in areas where public engagement has been done, Kazyoba says.
For Maswali’s community, STEPPS has been transformative. Health workers visit homes, inspect families’ living conditions, advise on water use, diagnose illness and provide treatment. “In the past, people relied on traditional remedies. Today they visit health centres and receive proper treatment and advice,” he says.
“They also educate the community about schistosomiasis prevention and discourage children from playing in contaminated water,” says Maswali. He has now chosen to wear protective gear while farming.
“We are already seeing the impact, the demand, and the community is happy,” says Kazyoba, who estimates close to 8,000 children received praziquantel during the first six months of STEPPS. “The intervention has reached the target, and we are collecting more evidence to help our government and other countries in the region to emulate what we have done.”