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Article History

Received: 27 March 2020

Accepted: 14 July 2020

First Online: 4 September 2020

Ethics approval and consent to participate

: Our study protocol for sample collection in Zanzibar was approved by the Zanzibar Medical Research Ethics Committee (ZAMREC) in Zanzibar, United Republic of Tanzania (reference no. ZAMREC 0003/Sept/011), the Ethics Committee of Basel, Switzerland (reference no. EKBB 236/11), and the Institutional Review Board of the University of Georgia in the USA (project no. 2012–10138-0). The study is registered with the <i>International Standard Randomized Controlled Trial Number</i> register (ISRCTN48837681). All children and adults invited to participate received information about the study. Only individuals with written informed consent were included in the study. For children, the consent form had to be signed by their parents or their legal guardians. All study participants were offered praziquantel (40 mg/kg) against schistosomiasis free of charge via the biannual island-wide mass drug administration campaigns conducted as part of the elimination interventions by the Zanzibar Neglected Diseases Programme from 2012 till 2017.

: Not applicable.

: The authors declare financial and non-financial competing interests as follows:Biolytix AG is a commercial entity that may gain or lose financially from the publication of the manuscript. Authors from the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute, the Zanzibar Neglected Diseases Programme, the Public Health Laboratory-Ivo de Carneri and the Natural History Museum received support for the here presented research in terms of collaboration and non-monetary support in terms of facilities, equipment, material and research personnel from Biolytix AG.