For many parasitic diseases, the microscopic examination of clinical samples such as urine and stool still serves as the diagnostic reference standard, primarily because microscopes are accessible and cost-effective. However, conventional microscopy is laborious, requires highly skilled personnel, and is highly subjective. Requirements for skilled operators, coupled with the cost and maintenance needs of the microscopes, which is hardly done in endemic countries, presents grossly limited access to the diagnosis of parasitic diseases in resource-limited settings. The urgent requirement for the management of tropical diseases such as schistosomiasis, which is now focused on elimination, has underscored the critical need for the creation of access to easy-to-use diagnosis for case detection, community mapping, and surveillance. In this paper, we present a low-cost automated digital microscope—the Schistoscope—which is capable of automatic focusing and scanning regions of interest in prepared microscope slides, and automatic detection of Schistosoma haematobium eggs in captured images. The device was developed using widely accessible distributed manufacturing methods and off-the-shelf components to enable local manufacturability and ease of maintenance. For proof of principle, we created a Schistosoma haematobium egg dataset of over 5000 images captured from spiked and clinical urine samples from field settings and demonstrated the automatic detection of Schistosoma haematobium eggs using a trained deep neural network model. The experiments and results presented in this paper collectively illustrate the robustness, stability, and optical performance of the device, making it suitable for use in the monitoring and evaluation of schistosomiasis control programs in endemic settings. @en

Schistosomiasis is a neglected tropical disease of Public Health importance affecting over 252 million people worldwide with Nigeria having a very high number of cases. It is caused by blood flukes of the genus Schistosoma and transmitted by freshwater snails. To achieve the current global elimination objectives, low-cost and easy-to-use diagnostic tools are critically needed. Recent innovations in optical and computer technologies have made handheld digital and smartphone-based microscopes a viable diagnostic approach. Development, validation and deployment of these diagnostic devices for field use, however, require the optimisation of its optical train for the registration of high-resolution images and the realisation of a robust system design that can be locally produced in lowincome countries. Field research conducted in Nigeria with active involvement of key stakeholders in research and development (R&D) led to the design of an initial prototype device for the diagnosis of urinary schistosomiasis, called Schistoscope 1.0. In this paper, we present further development of the Schistoscope 1.0 along two parallel design trajectories: a Raspberry Pi and a Smartphone-based Schistoscope. Specifically, we focused on the optimization of the optics, embodiment design and the electronics systems of the devices so as to produce a robust design with potential for local production.@en