GSA Chicago Meeting Report and Slides

02 Nov 2023

The GSA hosted a special one-day meeting on the 18th of October in Chicago, after the COR NTD meeting has concluded, as the ASMTH annual meeting commences.

The GSA meeting, Schistosomiasis: Celebrating Recent Achievements Supporting Elimination Goals, offered an opportunity to hear about the progress made by schistosomiasis programmes, celebrate ongoing work and consider some of the exciting research and developments that will help us reach the elimination targets.

This one-day meeting explored how WHO policies and guidelines are providing the stimulus for countries to advance with their control and elimination programmes and provided examples of how countries are monitoring disease, implementing control interventions and integrating schistosomiasis treatments into health services. The complexity of transmission of this water borne disease means cross cutting activities between different sectors such as water development, agriculture and health are an absolute must, and progress in this area was illustrated by recent studies. Research is providing new tools with the potential to enhance schistosomiasis control, and some of the exciting advances relating to diagnosis, drug resistance and vaccines was shared.

Read a summary of the meeting here

La GSA a organisé une réunion spéciale d'une journée le 18 octobre à Chicago, après la fin de la réunion COR NTD, alors que commençait la réunion annuelle de l'ASMTH.

La réunion de la GSA, intitulée Schistosomiasis : Celebrating Recent Achievements Supporting Elimination Goals, a été l'occasion d'entendre parler des progrès réalisés par les programmes de lutte contre la schistosomiase, de célébrer les travaux en cours et d'envisager certaines des recherches et des développements passionnants qui nous aideront à atteindre les objectifs d'élimination.

Cette réunion d'une journée a permis d'examiner comment les politiques et les lignes directrices de l'OMS incitent les pays à progresser dans leurs programmes de lutte et d'élimination et a fourni des exemples de la manière dont les pays surveillent cette maladie, mettent en œuvre des interventions de lutte et intègrent les traitements de la schistosomiase dans les services de santé. La complexité de la transmission de cette maladie transmise par l'eau signifie que les activités transversales entre différents secteurs tels que le développement de l'eau, l'agriculture et la santé sont une nécessité absolue, et les progrès dans ce domaine ont été illustrés par des études récentes. La recherche fournit de nouveaux outils susceptibles d'améliorer la lutte contre la schistosomiase, et certaines des avancées passionnantes en matière de diagnostic, de résistance aux médicaments et de vaccins ont été présentées.

Lire le résumé de la réunion ici

Meeting Programme and Slides

 

Time (CTD)

Topic

Speaker

8:30 - 9:00

Welcome Light Breakfast

 

9:00 - 9:05

GSA welcome

David Rollinson

Global Perspectives of Recent Achievements.

Chair: David Rollinson

9:05 - 09:50

Updates on the global number of people requiring PC, 2022 treatments, M and E and need for impact surveys.

[20mins + 10mins Q&A]

Amadou Garba

Pauline Mwinzi

WHO

Praziquantel: How much is enough?

[10mins + 5mins Q&A]

Johannes Waltz

Merck Schistosomiasis Elimination Program

Targeted interventions, decentralized community programmes, integration with health systems, sustaining elimination.

Chair: Wellington Oyibo

09:50 - 11:10

Decentralized community programs for sustained control interventions.

[10mins + 5mins Q&A]

Florence Wakesho Ministry of Health, Kenya

Progrès réalisés dans la lutte vers l'élimination de la schistosomiase en Côte d'Ivoire et défis actuels.

[10mins + 5mins Q&A]

Alain Kouamin

Ministry of Health, Public Hygiene and Universal Health Coverage, Côte D’Ivoire

Schistosomiasis Treatment Impact Survey in Ghana 2022-2023. 

[10mins + 5mins Q&A]

Joseph Opare

Ghana Health Service, Ministry of Health, Ghana

Unravelling Success: Schistosomiasis Impact Assessment in Tanzania. 

[10mins + 5mins Q&A]

George Kabona

Ministry of Health Tanzania

Discussion [10mins]

 

11:10 - 11:20

Morning Coffee and Tea Break

 

Cross-cutting, cross-sector collaborations and initiatives.

Chair: Louis-Albert Tchuem Tchuenté

11:20 - 12:30

WASH and schistosomiasis: Focal solutions for a focal disease.

[10mins + 5mins Q&A]

Fiona Fleming

Unlimit Health

A planetary health innovation for disease, food and water challenges in Africa.

[10mins + 5mins Q&A]

Jason Rohr

University of Notre Dame

sNailed it: Unlocking the potential of citizen science to control and prevent snail-borne diseases.

[10mins + 5mins Q&A]

Noelia Valderrama

KU Leuven / Royal Museum for Central Africa

A blueprint to account for schistosomiasis transmission risk in the Environmental Impact Assessment of water management infrastructure.

[10mins + 5mins Q&A]

Giulio de Leo

Stanford University

Discussion 10 mins

 

12:30 - 1:30

Lunch

 

Research developments in behaviour change approaches, diagnostics and morbidity.

Chair: Anne Straily

 

1:30 - 2:30

Partnering with Communities to
Eliminate Schistosomiasis.

[10mins + 5mins Q&A]

Michal Bruck / Zvi Bentwich

NALA Foundation

Closing the diagnostic gap for Schistosomiasis.

[10mins + 5mins Q&A]

Sarah Hingel

FIND

Female genital schistosomiasis: Sightsavers' perspective on efforts pushing ideas through to actions that tackle the challenges.

[10mins + 5mins Q&A]

Omosefe Osinoiki

Sightsavers

The epidemiology of periportal fibrosis and the relevance of current Schistosoma mansoni infection.

[10mins + 5mins Q&A]

Goylette Chami

University of Oxford

2:30 -2:45

Afternoon Coffee and Tea

 

Innovations in drug resistance, One Health and vaccines.

Chair: Bonnie Webster

2:45 - 3:45

Field surveillance for emerging Praziquantel Resistance in Schistosomes.

[10mins + 5mins Q&A]

Tim Anderson

Texas Biomedical Research Institute

Leveraging One Health for the control and elimination of schistosomiasis.

[10mins + 5mins Q&A]

Martin Walker

Royal Veterinary College

Recent updates on Sm-p80-based schistosomiasis vaccine.

[10mins + 5mins Q&A]

Aravindan Kalyanasundaram

Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center

The schistosome controlled human infection program, experiences from the Netherlands and Uganda.

[10mins + 5mins Q&A]

Meta Roestenberg

Leiden University

3:45 – 3:55

Discussion 10mins

 

3:55 – 4:00

Wrap up and close of meeting

David Rollinson / Anouk Gouvras / Johannes Waltz

GSA Research Monitoring and Evaluation Behaviour change Snail Female Genital Schistosomiasis Diagnostics Engineering