KIT and in country partners are designing a real time monitoring and evaluation platform to facilitate decision making for the control and management of schistosomiasis. This tool will build upon the MATCH methodology that seeks to inform decision making through better use of data.  

In the 2021-2030 roadmap, the WHO calls for:

1. Improved cost-effective prevalence mapping for schistosomiasis and
2. sub-district level mass drug administration, to address the insufficient control of this highly problematic disease that affects millions of people in the most impoverished communities in the world. 

With the limited resources available for reducing transmission and treating symptoms of schistosomiasis, it is essential for disease control programs to know which areas to prioritize for intervention. Qualitative interviews conducted in 2022 on academic experts and staff within the national schistosomiasis control program in Tanzania have additionally described an urgent need for tools and data that can facilitate decision making and improve planning for mass drug administration of schistosomiasis. 

First digital platform for schistosomiasis

The tool we will be developing will be the first digital platform for schistosomiasis in Tanzania directly addressing the requests of the WHO to facilitate planning of disease control interventions at a geographic specificity below the district level to enable targeted treatment.

Through more targeted use of mass drug administration, the key schistosomiasis control intervention, disease control programs can work to prevent chronic and well documented problems of both over- and under-treatment. Reducing under-treatment in areas newly targeted for administration with preventive chemotherapy drugs would result in mitigating local schistosomiasis transmission and reducing the likelihood of morbidity and disease progression in treated populations. Over-treatment is also highly problematic, as redundant treatment campaigns exhaust limited resources, cause unnecessary adverse drug effects and in some cases strain trust between communities and disease control program personnel.