Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Submitted to:
Mr. Ben de Paz
Professor
SCHISTOSOMIASIS
• Diarrhea
• Bloody stools
• Enlargement of abdomen
• Spleenomegaly
• Weakness
• Anemia
• Inflamed liver
Infectious Agents:
Mode of Transmission
Infection occurs when skin comes in contact with contaminated fresh water
in which certain types of snails that carry schistosomes are living. It is the
free swimming larval forms (cercariae) of the parasites that penetrate the
skin.
Methods of Control
a. Preventive Measures
• Dispose of feces and urine so that viable eggs will not reach
bodies of fresh water containing intermediate snail host. Control
of animals infected with S. japonicum is desirable but usually not
practiced.
• Isolation: None
• Quarantine: None
• Immunization of contacts: None
Each of these methods may be effective, but all have different advantages and
disadvantages, depending on the parasitic organism.
In terms of schistosomiasis this means elimination of the snail hosts. There are a
number of ways of doing this.
By application of molluscicides - This method of control is the main one used under
this heading, and may be successful in control of schistosomiasis. But it also has a
number of major disadvantages, including the expense of molluscicides, and, very
importantly the toxicity of the chemicals used, which may kill other aquatic
organisms such as the fish the affected populations may rely on.
Alteration of the aquatic environment - This includes altering the rate of flow of the
water, clearance of vegetation and drainage (for example of canals) at certain times
of the year. Disadvantages of these methods may include impracticality for
economic or environmental reasons, damage to fish populations (e.g. by clearance
of vegetation), and altering the environment such that it is then suitable for other
disease organisms, for example, increasing rate of water flow may inhibit snail
populations, but may then be suitable for colonisation by Simulium larvae, the
vectors for river blindness.
This is carried out by chemotherapeutic cure, and is currently the main control
method for schistosomiasis. The two main drugs used are Oxamniquine and
Praziquantel. These drugs are relatively safe to use, are the development of drug
resistance by schistosomes is not a problem. The major disadvantages to the use of
drugs to control schistosomiasis are firstly the cost, and second and more
importantly the need to repeat drug treatment at relatively short intervals. This
control method however is the most widely used with respect to schistosomiasis.
The use of a Vaccine - An important control measure that has been successfully
used with many other infectious diseases (e.g. smallpox) is the use of a vaccine.
However, for schistosomiasis, there is as yet no effective vaccine for human use
currently available. The identification of schistosome antigens that may form the
basis is a major priority of the research carried out in our laboratories. To be an
effective vaccine against schistosomiasis, (or indeed any tropical disease), the
vaccine must have the following features:
iii) It must be stable - For use in many of the affected countries it must be able to
survive storage as it is transported to isolated endemic populations.
These control methods at present are principally in this case introduction of latrines,
thereby reducing or eliminating contamination of the populations water supplies
with human faeces containing eggs. The disadvantages of these methods are
therefore also the same as those detailed above for prevention of human infection,
namely the large costs involved. Interestingly - infection of the snail with other
larval trematodes, particularly those of echinostomes, has been shown to protect
the snails from infection by larval schistosomes, and although these might not
eliminate schistosomes from endemic areas, they may to some extent limit
intensity of snail infections.