Group | Helminth Interventions

In the Helminth Interventions Group we conduct research with the goal of optimizing the control and elimination of human helminth infections. Our projects focus on the application, validation and evaluation of new diagnostic tools and intervention strategies that can help programme managers to effectively gain and sustain schistosomiasis control and elimination.

In large-scale operational and implementation research studies, we investigate the performance and applicability of new diagnostic approaches for the sensitive and specific detection of Schistosoma infections at the point of care. We also monitor and evaluate the impact and performance of standard and new intervention approaches to guide future programme decisions for schistosomiasis control and elimination.

On the Zanzibar islands (Unguja and Pemba) belonging to the United Republic of Tanzania in East Africa, our research focuses on transdisciplinary intervention approaches that can contribute to the interruption of urogenital schistosomiasis transmission on Zanzibar. In addition to preventive chemotherapy, we explore the impact of snail control and novel behavior change approaches in hotspot areas. In low-risk areas, we investigate the performance of new adaptive intervention approaches, such as surveillance-response including test-treat-track and targeted snail control scenarios.

We actively collaborate with academic institutions across the globe and work in close partnership with local governments, non-governmental organizations and national helminth control programmes.