ArticlePLoS neglected tropical diseases2018
Testing for soil-transmitted helminth transmission elimination: Analysing the impact of the sensitivity of different diagnostic tools.
Article in PLoS neglected tropical diseases, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 26 papers, 2 of them syntheses that pooled it.
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Who cites it
26 citing papers in PubMed, 2 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 36 citations in OpenAlex.
- A systematic review of mathematical models for soil-transmitted helminthiasis control strategies.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2026Pooled it
- An update on non-invasive urine diagnostics for human-infecting parasitic helminths: what more could be done and how?Parasitology · 2020Pooled it
- Egg excretion patterns of soil-transmitted helminth infections in humans following albendazole-ivermectin and albendazole treatment.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2024Trial
- Effects, equity, and cost of school-based and community-wide treatment strategies for soil-transmitted helminths in Kenya: a cluster-randomised controlled trial.Lancet (London, England) · 2019Trial
- Prevalence and intensity of soil-transmitted helminth infections in Narok and Bomet Counties, Kenya: Evidence from program monitoring.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025Article
- Development and validation of a high-throughput qPCR platform for the detection of soil-transmitted helminth infections.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2025Article
- Comparison of parasitological methods for the identification of soil-transmitted helminths, includingParasite epidemiology and control · 2024Article
- Detection of soil-transmitted helminths and Schistosoma spp. by nucleic acid amplification test: Results of the first 5 years of the only international external quality assessment scheme.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2024Article
- Anthelmintic resistance in soil-transmitted helminths: One-Health considerations.Parasitology research · 2023Review
- Evaluation of Kato-Katz and multiplex quantitative polymerase chain reaction performance for clinical helminth infections in Thailand using a latent class analysis.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2023Article
- Advantages and Limitations of Microscopy and Molecular Detections for Diagnosis of Soil-transmitted Helminths: An Overview.Helminthologia · 2022Article
- Two-stage lot quality assurance sampling framework for monitoring and evaluation of neglected tropical diseases, allowing for imperfect diagnostics and spatial heterogeneity.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2022Article
- Worms and bugs of the gut: the search for diagnostic signatures using barcoding, and metagenomics-metabolomics.Parasites & vectors · 2022Review
- Immunomodulatory and biological properties of helminth-derived small molecules: Potential applications in diagnostics and therapeutics.Frontiers in parasitology · 2022Review
- Towards soil-transmitted helminths transmission interruption: The impact of diagnostic tools on infection prediction in a low intensity setting in Southern Mozambique.PLoS neglected tropical diseases · 2021Article
- The impact of community-wide, mass drug administration on aggregation of soil-transmitted helminth infection in human host populations.Parasites & vectors · 2020Article
- Use of polyclonal IgY antibodies to detect serum immune complexes in patients with active hookworm infection.Parasitology · 2020Article
- What does soil-transmitted helminth elimination look like? Results from a targeted molecular detection survey in Japan.Parasites & vectors · 2020Article
- A cluster-randomised controlled trial comparing school and community-based deworming for soil transmitted helminth control in school-age children: the CoDe-STH trial protocol.BMC infectious diseases · 2019Article
- Determining post-treatment surveillance criteria for predicting the elimination of Schistosoma mansoni transmission.Parasites & vectors · 2019Article
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
In recent years, an increased focus has been placed upon the possibility of the elimination of soil-transmitted helminth (STH) transmission using various interventions including mass drug administration. The primary diagnostic tool recommended by the WHO is the detection of STH eggs in stool using the Kato-Katz (KK) method. However, detecting infected individuals using this method becomes increasingly difficult as the intensity of infection decreases. Newer techniques, such as qPCR, have been shown to have greater sensitivity than KK, especially at low prevalence. However, the impact of using qPCR on elimination thresholds is yet to be investigated. In this paper, we aim to quantify how the sensitivity of these two diagnostic tools affects the optimal prevalence threshold at which to declare the interruption of transmission with a defined level of confidence. A stochastic, individual-based STH transmission model was used in this study to simulate the transmission dynamics of Ascaris and hookworm. Data from a Kenyan deworming study were used to parameterize the diagnostic model which was based on egg detection probabilities. The positive and negative predictive values (PPV and NPV) were calculated to assess the quality of any given threshold, with the optimal threshold value taken to be that at which both were maximised. The threshold prevalence of infection values for declaring elimination of Ascaris transmission were 6% and 12% for KK and qPCR respectively. For hookworm, these threshold values are lower at 0.5% and 2% respectively. Diagnostic tests with greater sensitivity are becoming increasingly important as we approach the elimination of STH transmission in some regions of the world. For declaring the elimination of transmission, using qPCR to diagnose STH infection results in the definition of a higher prevalence, than when KK is used.
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