# Household Transmission of Cryptosporidium

> **NIH NIH R01** · JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY · 2022 · $651,800

## Abstract

Project Summary
Cryptosporidiosis is a leading contributor to child morbidity and mortality worldwide, responsible
for over 200,000 deaths in children under two, and morbidity in over 7 million children. However,
we have limited treatment and no vaccine for use in young children. Our prior work in
Bangladesh has demonstrated that almost 80% of children in an urban slum cohort were
infected with Cryptosporidium spp. and that infection, even without diarrhea, was significantly
associated with long-term growth faltering. Cryptosporidiosis is spread by fecal oral
contamination. We observed in a pilot transmission study in urban Bangladesh that households
with one Cryptosporidium infected child, had a 30% secondary attack rate in other family
members, and some affected family members carried the same Cryptosporidium genotype. In
contrast, households with Cryptosporidium negative children had no secondary infections
among other family members. We propose to establish a longitudinal cohort of families with
young children (< 1 year of age) in urban Bangladesh to determine risk factors for person-to-
person transmission. Specifically, we aim to understand how host level characteristics, including
nutritional status and gut microbiota, and parasite genetic diversity impact risk of household
transmission and pathogenicity of disease.
This proposal leverages a longstanding collaboration between Johns Hopkins University,
University of Virginia, and the International Centre for Diarrhoeal Disease, Research,
Bangladesh. This proposal is innovative, as it will be the first large household transmission
study of cryptosporidiosis to identify transmission to a sub-species level, and correlate this with
measures disease severity and risk factors for transmission. The findings from this study will
inform interventional efforts aimed to protect young children from this devastating infectious
disease.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10437797
- **Project number:** 5R01AI146123-04
- **Recipient organization:** JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Priya Duggal
- **Activity code:** R01 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $651,800
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-07-01 → 2024-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10437797

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10437797, Household Transmission of Cryptosporidium (5R01AI146123-04). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10437797. Licensed CC0.

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