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Seminar, first published on the 19th of August 2014
Dr Poppy Lamberton, Junior Research Fellow at Imperial College London
Schistosomiasis, is a chronic, debilitating disease. Uganda began a National Control Programme in 2003 with annual MDA of praziquantel. MDA on this scale provides strong selective pressures on the parasite population with an associated risk of drug resistance developing. There are currently no genetic markers for resistance, and alternative techniques are required to understand how treatment affects the parasite population. I use population genetic techniques to elucidate the effect of MDA on transmission dynamics and diversity and to inform on levels of non-clearance versus reinfection. As control programmes progress improved diagnostics are also required for accurately measuring infection prevalence and intensity and I will briefly discuss how population genetics can help inform on appropriate diagnostic techniques for measuring drug efficacy.