Efficacy of praziquantel and artemisinin derivatives for the treatment and prevention of human schistosomiasis: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Table 3 Sensitivity analysis of the efficacy of drugs targeting different species of schistosome (RCTs only)

Study	Method*	No. of Trials	Participants (N₁/N₂)	Pooled RRs (95%CI)	Heterogeneity Test (P)
	A	8	348/220	0.27 (0.22, 0.33)	0.88
PZQ (RCTs) for treatment	B	7	232/177	0.28 (0.22, 0.35)	0.90
	C	6	336/207	0.27 (0.22, 0.32)	0.70
	D	5	220/164	0.28 (0.22, 0.35)	0.70
AM for prevention (8-13 doses by 15-day interval)	A	6	2429/2563	0.10 (0.05, 0.21)	<0.01
	E	5	1996/2111	0.12 (0.06, 0.24)	<0.01
AS (6 mg/kg) 8 doses by 1-week interval for preventing	A	4	813/720	0.03 (0.01, 0.12)	0.89
	F	2	572/502	0.02 (0.00, 0.14)	0.73
AS (6 mg/kg) 8-14 doses by 2-week interval for preventing	A	5	3317/3553	0.05 (0.03, 0.09)	0.93
	G	4	879/893	0.04 (0.01, 0.14)	0.83
AS (6 mg/kg) 3-5 doses by 2-week interval for preventing	A	4	714/768	0.29 (0.16, 0.52)	0.20
	H	3	334/368	0.39 (0.20, 0.76)	0.39

*A: all trials were included in each subgroup, respectively.
B: one trial [34] with S. japonicum species was excluded.
C: two trials [36] with S. mansoni species were excluded.
D: three trials [34, 36] were excluded, the remaining with S. haematoium.
E: one trial [47] in which there was zero person positive in the treatment group was excluded.
F: two trials from the same study [56] were excluded.
G: one trial [53] with the largest sample size was excluded.
H: one trial [52] with the largest sample size was excluded.

ISSN: 1756-3305