This May, Mundo Sano hosted the workshop Applying Latent Class Analysis to Inform a Strongyloides Diagnostics Strategy in Madrid. The meeting brought together international researchers specialising in diagnostic product development, neglected diseases, statistical analysis and public health, all with a shared goal: to discuss, learn and exchange experiences on the challenges and opportunities in developing new diagnostic tools for strongyloidiasis.
Infection with the intestinal parasite Strongyloides stercoralis is estimated to affect between 400 and 600 million people worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO) recently added it to its control strategy for soil-transmitted helminths. Against this backdrop, the WHO Diagnostic Technical Advisory Group (DTAG) called for the identification of suitable diagnostic tools to support disease control programmes and the implementation of the WHO Guideline on Preventive Chemotherapy for Public Health Control of Strongyloidiasis, published in 2024. The workshop was organised to help in this direction.
The agenda featured updates on the state of the art in strongyloidiasis and its diagnosis, the WHO recommendations, and the Target Product Profile (TPP) developed at the request of the DTAG-WHO, which is expected to be published shortly. The workshop also addressed practical aspects of methodological design for health conditions that lack adequate reference standards, as is the case with Strongyloides stercoralis and other neglected tropical diseases. In such settings, latent class models emerge as a promising alternative.
The workshop’s outcomes and conclusions will inform the design and analysis of a research project, funded by GHIT, to evaluate the SsRT+ test, a rapid immunochromatographic technique for diagnosing Strongyloides stercoralis infections. The project is coordinated by Dr Marco Biamonte (Drugs & Diagnostics for Tropical Diseases – DDTD), with Fundación Mundo Sano among its partners.
Participants:
- Adriana Echazú – Fundación Mundo Sano
- Alejandro Krolewiecki – Fundación Mundo Sano
- Arancha Amor – Fundación Mundo Sano
- Victoria Periago – Fundación Mundo Sano
- Bruno Levecke – Ghent University
- Dora Buonfrate – IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria (WHO Collaborating Center for NTDs)
- Giulia Gambini – IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria (WHO Collaborating Center for NTDs)
- Lorenza Sanfilippo – IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria (WHO Collaborating Center for NTDs)
- Sara Roose – IRCCS Sacro Cuore Don Calabria (WHO Collaborating Center for NTDs)
- Luc Coffeng – Erasmus Medical Center Rotterdam
- Marco Biamonte – Drugs & Diagnostics for Tropical Diseases (DDTD)
- Matthias Schwarz – Drugs & Diagnostics for Tropical Diseases (DDTD)
- Patrick Lammie – Task Force for Global Health
- Rahmah Noordin – Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia
- Rubén Cimino – Universidad Nacional de Salta/CONICET
- Suzy Ossipow – QIMR Berghofer