Document is current

Article History

Received: 20 July 2017

Accepted: 14 September 2017

First Online: 29 September 2017

Authors’ information

: The Schistosomiasis Consortium for Operational Research and Evaluation (SCORE) was established in December 2008 to answer strategic questions about schistosomiasis control and elimination. SCORE is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation through a ten-year grant to the University of Georgia Research Foundation (UGARF).SCORE’s goal is to find answers that will help current and future schistosomiasis control program managers to do their job better. This includes learning what approaches to controlling and eliminating schistosomiasis work best and developing and evaluating new tools for program managers to use. Our vision is that our work will inform efforts to gain control of schistosomiasis in high-prevalence areas, sustain control and move towards elimination in areas of moderate prevalence, and ultimately eliminate schistosomiasis. SCORE does this by funding investigators from around the world to conduct the needed research and evaluation activities.The SCORE Secretariat is located on the campus of the University of Georgia in Athens, Georgia, USA, within the Center for Tropical and Emerging Global Diseases (CTEGD), but the program involves many investigators from around the globe.

: Written informed consent was obtained from parents/legal guardians of children in the study and assent was obtained from participating children, who were 7–8 years old. Ethical review of the research protocols was implemented by human subjects committee in each African country and by the institutional review board (IRB) of their respective northern partners. Studies in Kenya were reviewed and approved by the National Ethics Review Committee of the Kenyan Medical Research Institute.(KEMRI; approval number SCC 1820) and by the IRB of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC; approval #: 1661). In Niger, ethical approval was obtained from the Niger Republic National Consulate for ethical review (reference no.012/2010/CCNE) and from the Imperial College Research Ethic Committee (ICREC_8_2_2). In Mozambique, ethical approval was received from the Ministry of Health (reference no. 235/CNBS/10) and the Imperial College Research Ethic Committee (ICREC_10_8_2). In Tanzania, ethical approval was obtained from the National Institute for Medical Research (NIMR; reference no. NIMR/HQ/R.8a/Vol. IX/1022). In addition to these, the UGA IRB implemented an administrative human subjects review and issued additional approval per country’s protocol as follows: 10,267–0, 10,353–0, 10,431–0, and 10,533–0; for Kenya, Tanzania, Niger, and Mozambique, respectively. The parent trials have been registered with the International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial registry under ISRCT numbers 16,755,535 (Kenya), 95,819,193 (Tanzania), 32,045,736 (Niger), and 14,117,624 (Mozambique). Following enrollment and initial morbidity testing, all participating egg-positive and egg-negative subjects received treatment with 40 mg/kg praziquantel according to the approved SCORE Project MDA protocols.

: This paper is published with permission of the Director, KEMRI.

: The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

: Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.