Schistosoma haematobium infection afflicts about 150 million people in 53 countries in Africa and the Middle East. In many endemic areas, S. haematobium is sympatric with Schistosoma bovis, Schistosoma mattheei, Schistosoma curassoni, Schistosoma intercalatum and Schistosoma magrebowiei, its closely related species. In addition, they also develop in the same intermediate snail hosts. Since these schistosome species often infect snails inhabiting the same bodies of water, examining cercariae or infected snails for estimating transmission of S. haematobium is always confounded by the need to differentially identify S. haematobium from these other species. Recently, differentiating S. haematobium by polymerase chain reaction (PCR) from S. bovis, S. mattheei, S. curassoni and S. intercalatum, but not from S. magrebowiei was reported. However, to be able to evaluate residual S. haematobium transmission after control interventions in areas where S. haematobium may be sympatric with S. magrebowiei, a differential tool for accurate monitoring of infected snails is needed.
Multidrug-resistant (MDR) or extensively drug-resistant (XDR) Tuberculosis (TB) is a major challenge to global TB control. Therefore, accurate tracing of in-country MDR-TB transmission are crucial for the development of optimal TB management strategies. This study aimed to investigate the diversity of MTBC in Nigeria. The lineage and drug-resistance patterns of the clinical MTBC isolates of TB patients in Southwestern region of Nigeria were determined using the WGS approach. The phenotypic DST of the isolates was determined for nine anti-TB drugs. The sequencing achieved average genome coverage of 65.99X. The most represented lineages were L4 (n = 52, 83%), L1 (n = 8, 12%), L2 (n = 2, 3%) and L5 (n = 1, 2%), suggesting a diversified MTB population. In term of detection of M/XDR-TB, while mutations in katG and rpoB genes are the strong predictors for the presence of M/XDR-TB, the current study also found the lack of good genetic markers for drug resistance amongst the MTBC in Nigeria which may pose greater problems on local tuberculosis management efforts. This high-resolution molecular epidemiological data provides valuable insights into the mechanistic for M/XDR TB in Lagos, Nigeria.