Imperial College London
Alternate

Professor Michael Templeton

Faculty of Engineering, Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Professor of Public Health Engineering
 
 
 
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Contact

 

+44 (0)20 7594 6099m.templeton

 
 
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Assistant

 

Miss Judith Barritt +44 (0)20 7594 5967

 
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Location

 

303Skempton BuildingSouth Kensington Campus

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Summary

 

Publications

Citation

BibTex format

@article{Zhang:2022:10.1371/journal.pntd.0010820,
author = {Zhang, J and Pitol, AK and Braun, L and Hazell, L and Templeton, MR},
doi = {10.1371/journal.pntd.0010820},
journal = {PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases},
title = {The efficacy of soap against schistosome cercariae: a systematic review},
url = {http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010820},
volume = {16},
year = {2022}
}
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RIS format (EndNote, RefMan)

TY  - JOUR
AB  - Background:Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease that is endemic in 78 countries and affects almost 240 million people worldwide. It has been acknowledged that an integrated approach that goes beyond drug treatment is needed to achieve control and eventual elimination of the disease. Improving hygiene has been encouraged by World Health Organisation, and one aspect of good hygiene is using soap during water-contact activities, such as bathing and doing laundry. This hygiene practice might directly reduce the skin exposure to cercariae at transmission sites. A systematic review was carried out to investigate the efficacy of soap against schistosome cercariae and to identify the knowledge gaps surrounding this topic.Methodology:Six online databases were searched between 5th and 8th July of 2021. Records returned from these databases were screened to remove duplicates, and the remaining records were classified by reading titles, abstracts, and full texts to identify the included studies. The results were categorised into two groups based on two different protective mechanisms of soap (namely, damage to cercariae and protection of skin).Conclusions:Limited research has been conducted on the efficacy of soap against schistosome cercariae and only 11 studies met the criteria to be included in this review. The review demonstrates that soap has the potential of protecting people against schistosome cercariae and there are two protective aspects: (1) soap affects cercariae adversely; (2) soap on the skin prevents cercariae from penetrating the skin, developing into adult worms and producing eggs. Both aspects of protection were influenced by many factors, but the differences in the reported experimental conditions, such as the cercarial endpoint measurement used and the cercaria numbers used per water sample, lead to low comparability between the previous studies. This review indicates that more evidence is needed to inform hygiene advice for people living in schistosomiasi
AU  - Zhang,J
AU  - Pitol,AK
AU  - Braun,L
AU  - Hazell,L
AU  - Templeton,MR
DO  - 10.1371/journal.pntd.0010820
PY  - 2022///
SN  - 1935-2727
TI  - The efficacy of soap against schistosome cercariae: a systematic review
T2  - PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases
UR  - http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010820
UR  - http://hdl.handle.net/10044/1/100656
VL  - 16
ER  -
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