Molecular Detection of Schistosomiasis Using Real-Time PCR Before and After Treatment in Dumbi Communities, Kaduna State, Nigeria

Background Schistosomiasis, a neglected tropical disease, is a major helminth disease in terms of morbidity and mortality. This study assessed the use of real-time PCR for the detection of <i>Schistosoma</i> <i>sp</i>. DNA in both urine and faeces samples before and after praziquantel (PZQ) treatment, and the results were compared with those of conventional PCR and microscopic detection of schistosome eggs to evaluate treatment efficacy. Materials and methods A community-based cross-sectional study was carried out from August 2020 to January 2021 in Dumbi Communities of Nigeria. Both urine and stool samples were collected from three hundred and eighty-seven (387) study participants aged between three and 25 years before and after (three weeks and eight weeks) treatment with PZQ. On the treatment day, all participants who tested positive after microscopic examination in the community were treated with a single dose of 40 mg/kg PZQ. DNA was isolated from 50 samples (urine), including those that tested positive using microscopy as part of initial screening. Results Utilising diagnostic methods, microscopy detected <i>Schistosoma haematobium</i> eggs in 7.5% (n=29) of the urine samples collected before treatment, whereas real-time PCR amplified DNA in 39.8% (n=154) of the same samples, and no eggs were detected in the stool samples analysed. Among the diagnostic methods for 50 urine samples that were used for comparative analysis, real-time PCR had the highest positive detection of 80%, followed by conventional PCR (72%), haematuria (64%), and microscopy (58%). Compared with microscopy, real-time PCR and conventional PCR both provided lower estimates of cure rates. Conclusions The results of this study revealed that real-time PCR and conventional PCR are significantly more sensitive than microscopy for detecting and evaluating infection incidence, which is an important aspect of epidemiological studies. The real-time PCR-based detection technique can be especially useful in circumstances of lower intensity or prevalence of infection, a condition for which the parasitological diagnosis shows a well-proven limitation of its sensitivity.