Author:
OUMA J. H.,FULFORD A. J. C.,KARIUKI H. C.,KIMANI G.,STURROCK R. F.,MUCHEMI G.,BUTTERWORTH A. E.,DUNNE D. W.
Abstract
The relocation of several thousand members of the Kamba tribe from
the Kyulu Hills to the Thange valley near
Masongaleni in Kenya provides an excellent opportunity to study the
development of the immune response to schistosomiasis mansoni in a
population with little or no previous experience
of the infection. An adjacent, well-established
Kamba community with similar patterns of water contact provides a
suitable endemic control population. The immigrants
were, uniquely, examined shortly after their arrival in the endemic
area, while the prevalence of infection was still low.
At this time faecal egg counts peaked atypically around 30 years of
age. Over the next 12–18 months infection increased
rapidly, especially among teenagers, producing a pattern of infection
more typical of endemic communities. This
substantially narrows estimates of the time required to develop the
important determinants of the age–intensity profile,
supporting the notion that changes related to age per se,
rather than duration of infection, dominate. Age-dependent factors
might include behaviour or physiology, including immune response.
This paper provides the background for continuing
longitudinal studies on the development of immunological responses to this
parasite.
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Subject
Infectious Diseases,Animal Science and Zoology,Parasitology
Cited by
25 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献