The infection schistosomiasis is brought on by trematodes, or flukes. These parasitic flatworms, or schistosomes as they are often known as blood flukes, are members of the Schistosoma genus. Parasites are organisms that reside in or on hosts, or other living things, and obtain their nourishment from them. The host suffers as a result of this.
The flukes that cause schistosomiasis are discharged into the water after being discovered in snails. The parasites can enter your body and remain there for years if your skin comes into contact with tainted water. With a kind of forked head that enables it to pierce your skin, the parasite that infects humans first develops in snails.
Urogenital and intestinal schistosomiasis are the two primary manifestations of the disease, and they are caused by the three main species of schistosomes.
Other names for this illness are snail fever and bilharzia.
Who is affected by this condition?
Anyone might be affected by these parasites by swimming or bathing in contaminated water. The following regions’ freshwater lakes, rivers, and ponds are home to the parasite:
- Numerous regions of Africa, notably southern and sub-Saharan Africa. The Nile River basin in Egypt and Sudan, as well as the Maghreb, an area of North Africa, are also home to the worms.
- South America’s Brazil, Surinam, and Venezuela.
- Caribbean countries: Guadeloupe, Martinique, and Dominican Republic. In the Caribbean, there is less risk.
- China’s southern region.
- Regions of Laos, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Southeast Asia.
- Corsica.
Signs and Origins
What signs of the parasite Schistosoma can cause?
Many persons do not exhibit any signs of schistosomiasis. Scratchy skin and other signs and symptoms that appear within a few days of infection are called early signs and symptoms.
Subsequent symptoms (those that appear 30 to 60 days after infection) could be:
- High temperature.
- Feels cold.
- Cough.
- Muscle soreness and pains.
Years after infection, if treatment is not received, symptoms could include:
- You feel pain in your stomach.
- liver enlargement (hepatomegaly).
- Another name for blood in your pee is hematuria.
- Pain or difficulty passing urine (dysuria).
- Another name for blood in feces (poop) is hematochezia.
- Miscarriage.
Chronic (long-lasting) schistosomiasis may increase your risk of bladder cancer or liver scarring.
There is a remote possibility that you have eggs in your spinal cord or brain. If this is the case, you can have an irritated spinal cord, experience seizures, or become paralyzed.
What leads to the illness?
A parasite that lives in some freshwater snails is the cause of schistosomiasis. The parasite form that exits the snail and uses its forked head to pierce human skin. The water where the snails are found is contaminated by the eggs released into the urine and feces of sick individuals. The cycle continues as the eggs hatch into the snails. Children and adults who are infected re-infect themselves repeatedly.
But people don’t spread diseases to one another. If you have schistosomiasis, you cannot infect someone else.
Some researchers are focusing on developing a vaccine, while others are trying to figure out how to deal with the snails in order to contain the sickness.
Diagnoses and Examinations
How can one diagnose schistosomiasis?
Stool or urine samples may occasionally contain eggs, but most of the time a blood test is required. A microscope is used to study each of these.
