Schistosomiasis
Control
 In
terms of socioeconomic and public health impact,
schistosomiasis, also known as snail fever, is second
only to malaria as the most devastating parasitic
disease in tropical countries. An estimated 200
million people in 74 countries are infected with
the disease — 100 million in Africa alone.
Although schistosomiasis is not eradicable, the
disease can be prevented and transmission controlled
with a single, annual dose of the drug praziquantel.
Nigeria, where The Carter Center works to control
the disease, is the most schistosomiasis-endemic
country in Africa.
Children at Greatest
Risk
School-age children are most likely to become infected
with this silent, destructive disease because it
is easily contracted while bathing or swimming in
water contaminated with the parasite, which is shed
from snails and infects by penetrating human skin.
However, schistosomiasis also can be transmitted
simply through contact with contaminated water while
performing daily chores, such as washing laundry,
fetching water, and herding animals.
Children shoulder the majority of
schistosomiasis' consequences, especially poor growth
and impaired cognitive function. For communities
already burdened by poverty and ravaged by scourges
such as malaria and HIV/AIDS, schistosomiasis is
especially devastating.
Other effects of the disease include
anemia, bladder dysfunction, kidney and liver disease,
and premature death. The urinary form of schistosomiasis
is associated with increased risks for bladder cancer
in adults.
Strategies
To Fight Schistosomiasis
Schistosomiasis can be controlled now by one of
the great miracle medical discoveries of the 1980s:
the oral medicine praziquantel. Now that costs of
the medicine have dropped from more than $2 USD
per dose to 18 cents, great strides can be made
in treating schistosomiasis.
Studies of those treated show that
within six months of receiving a dose of praziquantel,
up to 90 percent of the damage due to the schistosomiasis
infection can be reversed. In the past, praziquantel
has been used successfully to treat millions of
people at risk for or infected with schistosomiasis
in Brazil, Egypt, and China.
Since 1999, nearly 800,000 praziquantel
treatments have been distributed in three states
in Nigeria. Although this success is remarkable,
the program has reached only about half of the children
in need in those areas. Unlike Mectizan, the drug
used to fight river blindness, and albendazole,
used with Mectizan to fight lymphatic filariasis,
no company donates praziquantel on a large scale,
so the Center's distribution is limited to the amount
it can afford to purchase.
Without sufficient funds for provision
of safe water, mobilization and education of affected
communities, as well as provision of sanitary facilities,
such as latrines, schistosomiasis will remain a
neglected disease in most of Nigeria and other sub-Saharan
countries. The Carter Center hopes the hard work
and success of its partners in Nigeria will kick-start
a nationwide initiative, with increased government
funding, that will address the quiet plague of schistosomiasis
in Nigeria.
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