Making friends with children of Bugoto village. The children were very excited by our arrival. Photo credit: Lauren Carruthers

Making friends with children of Bugoto village. The children were very excited by our arrival. Photo credit: Lauren Carruthers

February 7^Th2017年上午4:30 - 这是一个典型的格拉斯威格时期，天堂开了，雨水倾泻到地球上，因为格拉斯哥大学的三名研究人员将他们的套件袋扔进出租车，然后前往机场，在乌干达一个更阳光明媚的地方！冒险开始。

Having rested and met the field team from theVector Control Division, Ugandan Ministry of Health, we set out to the district of Mayuge, to be our base camp and home for the next month. From here we would drive out daily to the village of Bugoto on the northern shoreline of Lake Victoria to carry out our research on schistosomiasis. Our first aim was to speak to the villagers, with the help of some local health workers, to recruit them into the study and also collect vital survey and mapping information for our research. The children in particular seemed very excited by our arrival and the villagers were very welcoming as word spread quickly about our work.

In Bugoto schistosomiasis is caused by the endemic intestinal trematode曼氏菌。寄生虫经历复杂的生命周期。在卵中排出鸡蛋后，它们孵化到淡水中的奇迹中，然后感染了中间蜗牛宿主。然后从蜗牛释放出数十万个cercariae，进入湖中，以渗透进入被感染水的人类的皮肤。在人类宿主中，成年蠕虫在肠道的肠系膜静脉中发育，雄性和雌性蠕虫伴侣。产生鸡蛋，生命周期再次重复。该疾病会引起大量发病率，减少生长和认知发展，并经常导致严重的慢性疾病，因为数百个卵子在重要器官中的数百个卵子（如肝脏）每年造成多达200,000人死亡。随着反复的水暴露，蠕虫会增加，因此增加了卵负担，这意味着某人寿命的时间越长，他们就越有可能因这种疾病而严重患病。

当太阳隐约可见的村民避难时，尤其是孩子们在湖中冷却了 - 谁可以责怪他们！湖水接触也经常发生，因为它是饮酒，洗涤和沐浴水的主要来源，而费舍尔（Fisher-Folk）需要谋生并为家人提供谋生。因此，Bugoto的Cercariae暴露很高！许多坑式厕所直接进入湖泊，或者它们的物品被潮湿的季节降临时雷暴，促进了血吸虫病以及其他粪便 - 口腔传染病。显然，尽管已经实施了控制计划，但在过去的十年中，流行率一直在增加：仅刷气治疗并不是对该村庄的阴谋体问题的答案。需要采取消除这种疾病的措施的结合。但是，可用的财务资源应使用哪些措施？

This is where the兰伯顿实验室(@PoppyLamberton) and the SCHISTO_PERSIST project come in. Our aim over the next few years is to assess the schistosomiasis situation in an attempt to uncover new ways in which to effectively control the disease in Bugoto, Mayuge and beyond. We want to find out what control methods are useful and practical in these areas through speaking to the locals and getting their input. By looking at who is infecting whom we aim to generate information using parasite genetic data that will help inform us on biological factors and social habits that drive transmission. This will enable us to focus education and control more efficiently. Sometimes people do not clear the infection with praziquantel treatment so we are also going to look at resistance and explore potential schistosome-microbiome-drug interactions too. This last part is the main focus of my PhD which I have just started this year.

Disease diagnosis is also very important for monitoring schistosomiasis, but the best diagnostics are often far from ideal in rural African communities. Improving field tests to increase their speed and accuracy is another key aspect that needs development to help achieve schistosomiasis elimination. Thus, engineers joined us from the University of Glasgow halfway through the trip to trial their new diagnostics in an attempt to address this issue.

因此，这是Bugoto的所有操作！收集，输入，纠正和映射数据。收集，存储，筛分，加工，分析粪便样品。Miracidia被一一选中，直到成千上万。Kato-Katz，寄生虫孵化，疟疾屏幕，太多的东西要提及，但孩子们很棒。糖果是作为奖励分配的，最重要的是，它们也接受了治疗。这确实是一个非常忙碌但成功的月份！

总而言之，在该地区，年轻人和老年人中典型的沉积性血吸虫病感染的特征膨胀性腹部并不是唯一可见的迹象。许多村民的红色，肿胀，釉面的眼睛令人震惊。粪便中发现了土壤传播的胚芽卵，并且大多数学童的血液筛查中存在疟疾寄生虫。山羊，鸡和母牛在街道和房屋中漫游；衣服与抹布和鞋子合并很少。贫困和疾病在梅格中是非常真实的。解决问题不是教科书。即使您输入相同的成分，成功治愈疾病的成功社区方程也可能无法在其他地方提供相同的答案。寄生虫适应变化，因此为了消除它们，我们需要记住保持警惕和灵活。

And so it was a very weary but happy bunch of researchers, bags bulging with data, which arrived back to the Glasgow drizzle early on the 5^Thof March 2017, ready to crack on with the lab work and tackle the analyses, before out next trip back to this fantastic, welcoming and inspirational country. We very much look forward to meeting up with our amazing collaborators from theVector Control Divisionwhen we venture back out to Uganda and would like to thank everyone involved for making the trip such a success.