Health Benefits of Repeated Treatment in Pediatric Schistosomiasis

Objective and Hypotheses: This project has the overall objective of implementing and evaluating new approaches to reducing the current and future burden of urinary schistosomiasis in young children using the antihelminthic drug praziquantel. The investigators hypotheses are that (1) praziquantel treatment will be as effective in children 1 to 5 years of age (who are routinely excluded from schistosomiasis control programmes) as it is in older 6-10 year old children and (2) two treatments will be more effective than a single treatment, especially in children 1 to 5 years of age.