New insights into the observed age-specific resistance to reinfection with Schistosoma japonicum.

Open Access
Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In this issue of Clinical Infectious Diseases, Kurtis and colleagues [1] present a longitudinal study of a population in the Philippines chronically exposed to Schistosoma japonicum. Past studies of such field populations have demonstrated that resistance to reinfection with this parasite can be observed after 14 years of age and that resistance continues into adulthood [2, 3]. A Kaplan-Meier analysis of the time to reinfection following curative chemotherapy is shown in figure 1, originally published in Journal of Infectious Diseases >10 years ago, showing the same communities in which this current study [1] was performed. Prior exposure to schistosomes induced no resistance to reinfection in younger individuals, but individuals aged 14–35 who were infected and then cured had a modest prolongation in their time to reinfection, compared with uninfected control subjects. Statistically, this benefit from past infection could no longer be demonstrated after 2–3 years and was presumed to be relatively short lived [2] (figure 1).

This publication has 8 references indexed in Scilit: