Attaining the minimum target of resolution WHA 54.19 for schistosomiasis control in the Rainforest Zone of the state of Pernambuco, Northeastern Brazil

Reliability of current estimates of schistosomiasis prevalence in the Rainforest Zone of the state of Pernambuco, Northeastern Brazil

“…Data on the number of persons examined by the PCE-SUS in the municipalities of the ZMP from 2002 to 2004 are given by Favre et al (2006). Fig.…”

“…At first sight this indicates a fall of 2.1 pp in the municipality prevalence over that period. Considering that the last survey carried out by the MoH in 1996-1999 registered 23.5% of prevalence (Favre et al 2006), those results may be mistakenly regarded as indication that schistosomiasis has recently ceased to be a relevant health problem in that municipality. However, a closer look at the SES/PE reports shows that both surveys were carried out in the capital town, which is mainly urban.…”

“…Even considering that the surveys carried out by the MoH in the ZMP from 1996 to 1999 (Favre et al 2006) had a broader scope than those by the PCE-SUS from 2002 to 2004, a decrease in prevalence between the two periods can be envisaged for 11 of those 12 municipalities. Only in Escada an apparent increase was noticed, from 22.8 to 34.4%.…”

“…The last evaluation made by the MoH through the national Health Foundation (Funasa) between 1996 and 1999 revealed that 35 of the municipalities still had prevalence indices above 10% (Favre et al 2006).…”

Directives for Schistosomiasis Control in Endemic Areas of Brazil

“…The main goals are to prevent the occurrence of severe forms of the disease and to reduce prevalence to less than 25% at the community level. This strategy has contributed to decrease the country-wide percentage of egg-positives from 10.4% in 1997 (290,031 positives out of 2,791,831 examined) to 5.2% in 2009 (68,952 positives out of 1,329,585 examined), confirming a downward trend observed since the mid-1990s (Coura & Amaral, 2004;Amaral et al , 2006); however, it has yielded unsatisfactory results in highly endemic areas mainly due to low population coverage (Favre et al, 2006a). Therefore, it has been advocated that control activities in such problematic areas should focus on high-risk groups like school-aged children rather than whole populations (Favre et al, 2009).…”