Schistosomiasis: Forty years' war on the worm

Schistosome vaccine candidates are no zu entering phase I clinical trials. In an attempt to illustrate the progress made towards control, and the definition of potential vaccines against schistosomiasis, Andre Capron reviews some of the major findings and observations that have Zed to a significant evolution of our concepts, together with the production of novel and promising tools. If is obvious that our most important advances have proceeded front the successful integration of convergent knowledge in biology, epidemiology and biotechnology. At this stage, nobody can predict what will be the outcome of the current trials, but an important step has certainly been made towards immunointervention in human schistosomiasis.