Background
The diagnosis of urogenital schistosomiasis is based on the complementarity of serological technique and microscopic examination (ME). Between 2015 and 2019, the number of urinary schistosomiasis tests received in our laboratory increased sharply from 300 to 900 per year.
Therefore, we wanted to evaluate the reliability of urine microscopic examination (ME, reference and routine technique) from urine sample by comparing it to other techniques (antigenic technique and PCR). To this end, we optimized two real-time PCRs targeting respectively Schistosoma haematobium (Sh) and Schistosoma mansoni (Sm).
Methodology/Principal findings
914 urine samples from 846 patients suspected of urogenital schistosomiasis were prescribed and analyzed by PCR and also by antigenic technique for the first 143 samples. The antigenic technique evaluated was Schisto POC-CCA, Rapid Medical Diagnostics. These results (antigenic technique and PCR) were compared to ME which was performed from all urines.
The percentage of 14% (128/914) positive cases with the PCR technique and the percentage of 6.0% (54/914) positive cases with ME is significantly different (Chi 2 test, p<0.001). These 128 positive PCRs correspond to 120 different patients, 88.3% (106/120) of them were young migrants and 11.7% (14/120) were French patients returning from travel. Among these migrants, more than 75% (80/106) came from French-speaking West Africa.
In addition, the Schisto POC-CCA showed a specificity of 39% (46/117), too poor to be used as a screening tool in low or non-endemic areas.
Conclusion/Significance
Targeted Sh and Sm PCRs in urine are reliable techniques compared to ME (reference technique). In view of our results, we decided to screen urinary schistosomiasis by direct ME always coupled by the PCR technique, which has shown better reliability criteria.
UFMs need better information about the health care system and their rights. The educators' health care support training, their knowledge of the rights of UFMs and the role of healthcare professionals need to be improved. Screening of mental illness needs to be developed.
In conversation with their GPs, the patients did not define themselves by their unstable financial position. The patients' experience and expectations in relation to interactions with their doctors appeared to be similar to those of the general population.
National audienceAccessing hospital care is a privilege for a growing proportion of the population in situations of economic and social precarity. It is therefore important that caregivers understand these difficulties in order to adapt their nursing approach.L’hôpital est la porte d’entrée privilégiée d’une partie grandissante de la population en situation de précarité économique et socialeC’est pourquoi il est important que les soignants comprennent ces difficultés afin d’optimiser leurs interventions
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.