What we do
About our project
Introduction
The eWHORM project brings together a multidisciplinary consortium of African and European research institutes, universities and not for-profit organisations to make a major impact on one of the most persistent public health challenges worldwide: worm infections (helminthiases).Affecting approximately 1.5 billion people globally, worm infections are various conditions that include growth stunting, impaired memory and cognition, blindness, and severe dermatitis among their consequences. By further developing and testing more effective treatment options for different helminth species, eWHORM will contribute to enabling the World Health Organization's “Road Map for Neglected Tropical Diseases” (2021-2030).
Objectives
With the overarching goal of enabling the World Health Organization's “Road Map for Neglected Tropical Diseases” (2021-2030), eWHORM aims to address key actions necessary to eliminate neglect of filarial and soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections and improve capacity in endemic countries. These actions include the development of new and more effective treatment options, the advancement of more sensitive diagnostics, and the strengthening of local healthcare systems. To this end, the eWHORM partners will pursue three objectives:Objective 1: Implementing an adaptive clinical trial platform
Objective 2: Testing OXF for its PoC in helminth-infected patients
Objective 3: Building capacity for adaptive clinical trial conduct and improving diagnostic capability for parasite infections
For more detailed information see the eWHORM programme website (https://www.ewhorm.org/).
Our research focus
Our research focus
Since the Laboratory for Parasitology of the Erasmus MC has great expertise in both training and external quality assessment schemes for methods to detect parasitic infections, its role in eWHORM is focused on the preparation of a virtual training tool for microscopic detection of blood and intestinal parasites. This will include virtual microscopy and virtual assessment to ensure that technicians acquire and regularly confirm their skills. It will allow longitudinal assessment of individual users over time, which can be used to i) notify and guide users to refresh training in case too many or serious incorrect results are reported, ii) use aggregated and anonymized data to examine the improvement of examination skills of users, and iii) refine the training material.
Aim of the work package
The consortium aims to develop an easy-to-use web-based, open-access training and self-assessment tool for microscopic examinations for the detection of parasites. Thereby this project can sustainably increase the quality of microscopic examinations for the detection of parasites in low- and middle-income countries. This will increase the reliability of laboratory results, which is important not only for patients but also for policy-makers that use the aggregated laboratory results to refine the control programs for infectious diseases.Funds & Grants
Collaborations
Internal collaborations
- Onderwijs & Onderzoek
- Mathijs Doets (Adviseur ICT & Onderwijs)
External collaborations
- Austria:
- Medical University of Vienna
- Democratic Republic of Congo
- Institut National de Recherche Biomedicale
- Gabonese Republic
- Centre de Recherches Médicales de Lambaréné
- Germany
- University Hospital Bonn
- Bernhard Nocht Institute for Tropical Medicine
- European Research and Project Office GmbH
- Republic of Cameroon
- University of Buea
- Switzerland
- Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative
- Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute
