Evaluation of Strongyloidiasis in Ecuador: a fieLd Laboratory Accuracy Study

the World Health Organization (WHO) has recently committed to promote the control of strongyloidiasis within 2030 targets for STH control programmes. A specific target is to establish by 2030 an efficient strongyloidiasis control programme in school aged children (SAC), envisaging ivermectin preventive chemotherapy (PC) of SAC at risk of morbidity due to strongyloidiasis. The monitoring of such ambitious PC activity strictly requires appropriate diagnostic tools, but fundamental gaps exist in this field. Indeed, until now at the moment no consensus method for the diagnosis of S. stercoralis infection is recommended and the absence of a gold standard test limits capacity for effective diagnosis, surveillance and disease control. The aim of this project is to provide fundamental information on the performance and applicability of diagnostic methods for the assessment of S. stercoralis infection to inform the forthcoming WHO global strongyloidiasis control program to be implemented as a part of the WHO 2030 disease control targets. ESTRELLA is a cross-sectional study in an area of high prevalence of strongyloidiasis (San Lorenzo, Esmeraldas, Ecuador). The study will have a school-based approach, and each enrolled SAC will be asked to supply fecal and blood samples for testing with different methods for the diagnosis of S. stercoralis infection.