University of California San Francisco (UCSF)
The Impact of WASH on Re-infection with STH
Study the impact of WASH on Trachoma by adding an STH intervention and post-treatment evaluation. WASH intervention and control communities will be treated with albendazole and STH burden will be assessed pre-treatment and at annual intervals thereafter.
Re-envisioning the "F" in SAFE: Facial cleanliness and hygiene metrics, personal hygiene practices, and trachoma risk: Operational research for enhanced evaluation in Tanzania
RQ1 - Reliability assessment: What is the intra- and inter-rater reliability of current qualitative F and novel quantitative hygiene metrics across study contexts?
RQ2 – Validity assessment: What is the validity of each metric of interest (i.e., quantitative hygiene and qualitative F metrics) with regard to recent personal hygiene practices and trachoma outcomes?
RQ3 – Utility assessment: What is the utility of each metric (i.e., qualitative and quantitative)?
RQ4 – Risk factor assessment: Do proxy facial and hand hygiene outcomes, as measured by the novel quantitative hygiene metric, represent risk factors of incident C. trachomatis infection?
Improving disease control and elimination decision making with geospatial algorithms
Can geospatial algorithms be used by disease programs to help identify hotspots at community and Implementation Unit level?
Re-envisioning the "F" in SAFE: Facial cleanliness and hygiene metrics, personal hygiene practices, and trachoma risk: Operational research for enhanced evaluation in Tanzania
RQ1 - Reliability assessment: What is the intra- and inter-rater reliability of current qualitative F and novel quantitative hygiene metrics across study contexts?
RQ2 – Validity assessment: What is the validity of each metric of interest (i.e., quantitative hygiene and qualitative F metrics) with regard to recent personal hygiene practices and trachoma outcomes?
RQ3 – Utility assessment: What is the utility of each metric (i.e., qualitative and quantitative)?
RQ4 – Risk factor assessment: Do proxy facial and hand hygiene outcomes, as measured by the novel quantitative hygiene metric, represent risk factors of incident C. trachomatis infection?
Evaluation of community directed vector control on transmission of Onchocerca volvulus in a Loa loa co-endemic region
This study will pilot the Slash and Clear methodology in an oncho-Loa loa co-endemic setting. Previous pilots in Uganda and Nigeria have demonstrated that this simple strategy of removing breeding sites can result in significant black fly reductions that last for several months. This study will provide important data on the impact of Slash and Clear on black fly biting, and consequently its impact on oncho elimination. Two intervention and one control community will be compared for two years, with repeated measurements being taken of biting rates.
Comparison of muti-parallel qPCR and Kato-Katz for detection of STH in Kenyan children
Is the multiparallel quantitative polymerase chain reaction technique superior to Kato-Katz microscopy in assessing the intensity and prevalence of soil-transmitted helminth infections in stool?
Preliminary Findings and Lessons Learned
- qPCR was more sensitive than Kato-Katz at detecting Ascaris, Trichuris, and hookworm infections in child fecal samples.
- Very few samples were helminth positive by Kato-Katz microscopy that were not also positive by qPCR, suggesting minimal human classification error during microscopy.
- Duplicate qPCR analysis on ~10% of samples by two separate labs (Smith and KEMRI) showed excellent concordance (97-100% agreement for each helminth species).
- A reanalysis of the effect of a combined water, sanitation, and hand washing (WASH) intervention on child helminth infections with qPCR data compared to Kato-Katz data gave very similar results.
Exploring alternative indicators for trachoma endpoint decision-making (Uganda)
Analyze the relationships between the prevalence of the clinical sign follicular trachoma (TF) and the prevalence of infection and antibody to determine whether it may be appropriate to consider one or more alternative indicators for deciding whether trachoma programs can stop MDA.