Pragmatic weight estimation for dosing of a new paediatric treatment for schistosomiasis prevention and control in preschool-aged children: a feasibility study in Uganda and Côte d'Ivoire

Background

Schistosomiasis remains a major public health concern in endemic settings. The Pediatric Praziquantel Consortium has developed a new paediatric treatment, arpraziquantel, for preschool-aged children. Because the treatment is dosed according to body weight, dose determination by scales poses operational challenges in community-based mass treatment campaigns. This study assessed the performance of the Pediatric Advanced Weight Prediction in the Emergency Room Extra-Long Mid-Arm Circumference (PAWPER XL-MAC) tape for weight estimation during mass drug administration in Uganda and Côte d'Ivoire.