2010

Most of CONTRAST's field activities have now been finalised. Some of the molecular work has already been reported on, and can be found in the bibliography section.

CONTRAST gets impressive recognition in the special issue of Parasitology, published late in 2009. The title fo the issue is Control of schistosomiasis in sub-Saharan Africa, 16 of the articles are co-written by CONTRAST partners.

2009

Several field work campaigns have been carried out to support the ongoing research in work package 3, 4, 5, 6 , 7, 8, 10, and 12.

- in Senegal, the teams from NMH and ISRA carried out fieldwork in the southern provinces Koldo and Tambacounda, as well as follow-up work in the northern parts near Richard Toll. This work supported work packages 3, 4 and 10.

- in Kenya a second follow-up field campaign was carried out near Taveta, this work supports research in work packages 8, 10 and 12.

- in Zambia, a second field campaign was carried out in early March, also supporting work package 10.

- finally a large campaign was carried out in Kenya, with personnel from NHM, DBL, NMK and MU, in order to collect samples for the work underway in work packages 3, 4, 5, & 7 .

CONTRAST was represented with a special session at the ASTMH meeting in New Orleans in December 2008.

Summer 2008

CONTRAST is nicely presented in the cover story of the new issue of the Bulletin of Tropical Medicine and International Health. 

Fieldwork campaigns are underway in both East and West Africa. We will post more news on these activities in the future. You can see the location and photos from the Senegalese field sites on the CONTRAST map here .

CONTRAST coorindation office has had a change in address, as DBL has now merged with the University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Life Sciences. Click here for the new address, or here to see the new location on a map . To celebrate the merge a seminar is held on June 2nd, 2008, and an official opening of the new DBL headquarters is held at 3pm. Full story here .

November 2007

CONTRAST held its second annual meeting in October with great success. The meeting was hosted by the Cameroon CONTRAST partner Centre for Schistosomiasis and Parasitology .

The first CONTRAST Periodic Activity Report was submitted and accepted by the European Commission in November. Members can download the report here .

September 2007

Fireflower

A beta version of the CONTRAST database has been created by our Canadian database partner Fireflower ltd. (clicking the link opens a new window). The database will be presented to the CONTRAST community at the workshop in Yaoundé, but we would like everyone to have a look at the product before we meet.
More news on the Fireflower database to follow. Members, to read more visit the page dedicated to the Yaoundé meeting, where two guides introducing the database have been posted.

July - August 2007 

CONTRAST Field work is going to take place in western Uganda and Niger in this period.
In Niger miracidia and cercariae are going to be collected in the study villages for molecular analysis. In western Uganda,  NHM, VCD and MU teams will conduct parasitological and malacological surveys for collection of material for DNA barcoding.  

CONTRAST news May 2007

CONTRAST had a feature in the 5 May issue of The Parliament Magazine.
You can download the page or a a full pdf of the magazine in the downloads section under 'CONTRAST publicatons'..

In Senegal the work is well underway for CONTRAST objective 2. Two villages have been located, cohorts have been identified and trials are being held in early and late May.

Also the Niger field work is going as planned. Field work was carried out in February (from the 2nd - 22nd) and between 14 March - 24 April. The first micradial sampling has been undertaken. More than 1500 pupils were examined for S mansoni and S.heamatobium in the 5 study villages.
This work relates to the first overall objective of CONTRAST .

The CONTRAST snail-parasite research node at CSP in Cameroon is nearly finalized.

The CONTRAST snail database located at NMK is nearly finished.

The CONTRAST GIS research node at UNZA has been established. Staff has been allocated to run the research node.

A second field campaign in Kenya + Zanzibar was conducted late April.

First Kenyan fieldwork campaign using the CONTRAST feldwork kit was undertaken between 16-21 February.

Cameroon de-worming campaign

Cameroon has been selected as one of the start-up countries for the mebendazole donation initiative, and we have received 4 millions tablets of mebendazole from Johnson & Johnson.

Click here to download an information sheet on the de-worming programme (in both French and English, pdf-format, 667 kB).

The national mass deworming campaign was launched on the 20^th February 2007. The event was be preceded by a press conference on the 19^th February 2007.

The ceremony provided an opportunity for advocacy for the control of schisto and intestinal worms.

Previous news items

All work packages (sub-projects) in CONTRAST have been published on the website. You can have a look at them here. (an page of introduction is missing at the moment (mid-May 2007).

The de-briefing report from the kick-off workshop Entebbe has been published, and can be downloaded in the downloads section.

The CONTRAST website was launched 1 January 2007.

News for CONTRAST partners

- 19 January. The 5th CONTRAST Management Committee meeting will be held on 29 March.

- 15 January 2007. News on the field collection forms and the field kit. The forms are all as good as finished, but we are now waiting to get them printed The field kit will be sent out later January 2007. We sincerely apologize for the delay in this matter, but on the other hand, the CONTRAST kit will be unbeatable in the quality and versatility of its contents

mid-January 2007. The partner profile pages are getting updated, with renewed staff profiles (where necessary).

- 2 January 2007. New department in Zambia involved in CONTRAST (see the partners page)

- 2. January 2007. Fieldwork report from Uganda published (can be downloaded in the downloads ection)