Assessing the prevalence of Female Genital Schistosomiasis and comparing the acceptability and performance of health worker-collected and self-collected cervical-vaginal swabs using PCR testing among women in North-Western Tanzania: the ShWAB study

Female genital schistosomiasis (FGS) is a severe neglected disease, caused by infection with Schistosoma haematobium. The WHO has prioritized the improvement of diagnostics for FGS and previous studies have explored the PCR-based detection of Schistosoma DNA on genital specimens, with encouraging results. We aimed to determine the prevalence of FGS among women living in an endemic district in North-western Tanzania, applying and preliminary comparing self-collected and operator-collected cervical-vaginal swabs followed by PCR, and to assess the acceptability of these sampling procedures.