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Article History

Received: 10 July 2023

Accepted: 18 August 2023

First Online: 18 September 2023

Declarations

:

: The study was approved by the KEMRI Scientific and Ethics Review Committee (approval number KEMRI/SERU/CGMR-C/170/3895) as well as the Oxford Tropical Research Ethics Committee (reference number 38-19). During the community engagement phase, a presentation was made to the national Director for Neglected Tropical Diseases at the Ministry of Health, the county and sub-County Health Management Teams and the Department of Education in all counties to obtain their approval. In each school a meeting was held with the school Parent Teachers’ Association (PTA) or management board to obtain their permission to conduct the survey in their school. The head teacher and PTA chairperson signed the consent form on behalf of the parents and school for the pupils to be examined. Each child gave verbal assent. Community health workers were hired and trained in each school to assist and be the link with the community emphasizing that participation was completely voluntary, and subjects had the opportunity to withdraw from the study at any point in the study. For pupils selected for interviews, these were explained, and each was given an information leaflet to take home for their parents along with an opt-out form. Parents were to sign and return the form only if they did not want their child to participate in the interviews, or they could attend the school the next day to clarify any issues they may have. On the following day, if the selected pupils did not have the opt out form and were willing to participate, they proceeded with the interviews. All data were collected on PIN protected electronic tablets, stored on password protected RedCap databases on the KEMRI-Wellcome Trust servers. Data were analyzed after export to Excel spreadsheets without inclusion of personal identifiers. All pupils with tungiasis were referred for treatment to the community health workers or the local health facility using benzyl benzoate provided by the study. For those with secondary bacterial infection and other illnesses requiring treatment, a referral was made to the nearest health facility.

: Not applicable.

: All authors declare no conflict of interest.