TY - JOUR T1 - Schistosoma mansoni Infections in Young Children: When Are Schistosome Antigens in Urine, Eggs in Stool and Antibodies to Eggs First Detectable? A1 - Stothard, J. Russell A1 - Sousa-Figuereido, Jose C. A1 - Betson, Martha A1 - Adriko, Moses A1 - Arinaitwe, Moses A1 - Rowell, Candia A1 - Besiyge, Fred A1 - Kabatereine, Narcis B. Y1 - 2011/01/04 N2 - Author Summary In sub-Saharan Africa, intestinal schistosomiasis is a debilitating disease caused by a worm infection. To arrest disease progression, de-worming medications are given out, often en masse, to school-aged children. In Uganda, however, much younger children can be infected, and in lakeshore communities both infants and pre-school children can already show signs and symptoms of intestinal schistosomiasis. To change de-worming practices, further information on the occurrence of infections in these younger is needed for evidence-based decision making. Our study applied current methods of disease diagnosis to better define the ‘age of first infection’ and estimate general infection prevalence within a disease-endemic village. Up to 50% of young children were clearly shown to have schistosomiasis and could likely wait up to 3–4 years before obtaining first treatment if present de-worming policies are not changed. In the context of identifying future treatment needs, we propose that antigen detection methods are most suitable. JF - PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases JA - PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases VL - 5 IS - 1 UR - https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0000938 SP - e938 EP - PB - Public Library of Science M3 - doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0000938 ER -