The new WHO guideline for control and elimination of human schistosomiasis: implications for the Schistosomiasis Elimination Programme in Nigeria.

With some 134,073,166 people living in endemic communities at risk of infection [1], Nigeria is the most endemic country in Africa and requires preventive chemotherapy (PC) for a total of 26.3 million persons [2]. The National Schistosomiasis Elimination Programme (NSCHEP), with the support of international partners, has been implementing PC in Nigeria since 2009 and most recently will need to revise its current strategy (Additional file 1). For example, the new World Health Organization (WHO) guideline has six key recommendations that will dramatically change the implementation of schistosomiasis elimination in endemic countries [3]. However, its impact and programmatic implications will vary from country to country, hence the need for a country-specific analysis. This article discusses these recommendations with specific reference to the challenges and opportunities in Nigeria. We summarise the key pointers in Additional file 1: Box 1 against the six recommendations of the WHO 2022 guideline.