Schistosomiasis is Africa's second most common parasitic disease. Less than 20 years ago, over 200 million were infected. In many high-risk areas the Schistosomiasis Control Initiative (SCI) has been helping to tackle the disease by offering treatments to millions of children. This book tells the story of a man, Alan Fenwick, who founded the SCI to control the worms and snails and so improve the lives of many burdened with the disease as well as reducing the numbers infected. Over this period SCI and the Ministries of Health and Education in 16 countries delivered over 220 million treatments. Treatment coverage of up to 75% has been achieved. Widely recognised as a cost-effective and successful intervention, SCI's knock-on effects include improving overall physical health, school attendance and future prospects for millions of people.
Human schistosomes (blood flukes) are digenetic trematodes that spend the adult part of their life cycle in humans and a further part in aquatic snails. Despite advances in chemotherapy, schistosomiasis is still a significant infection in the populations of several countries in the tropics. This book replaces a previous volume Schistosomiasis: Epidemiology, Treatment and Control (Heinemann, 1982) by Jordan and Webbe. All chapters have been rewritten by internationally renowned workers. Ultrasound, expected to aid identification of early disease in the field and increase our understanding of its evolution, is discussed in a new chapter. Others, each with an extensive bibliography, review the parasites and their snail intermediate hosts, epidemiology, clinical manifestations and pathology, diagnosis, immunology, drugs and patient management and control. Limitations of the role of chemotherapy in morbidity control are discussed and the need for flexibility in control interventions in the varied epidemiological situations is stressed. An interdisciplinary approach may be necessary to reduce transmission by appropriate measures against the snail intermediate host, and to implement public health measures, including the provision of safe water (with many other medical and social benefits) and health education. This comprehensive volume is for public health workers involved in the prevention and control of the disease, for physicians, and for students and teachers of many disciplines. It also provides a reference book for health planners, social anthropologists, health educators, water and sanitary engineers and others engaged in improving health in the tropics. Physicians in temperate countries will also find it a useful reference book as schistosomiasis, often acute, is being diagnosed more frequently in those returning from holidays in endemic areas.
A set of nine A-4 color plates with 118 photomicrographs illustrating the appearance and diagnostic features of all the common intestinal helminths and protozoan parasites known to infect humans. Produced in a robust plasticized format, the plates can be used as either a guide for laboratory and field workers in endemic countries, or a teaching aid for students and trainees. The aim is to help the microscopist ascertain the presence of parasites in feces, whether they be minute protozoan cysts or large helminth eggs, and to identify them correctly. With this goal in mind, the bench aids include pertinent laboratory instructions as well as high-quality images. The photomicrographs illustrate diagnostic features of each of the parasites as they appear in different preparations and at different magnifications. Each photomicrograph is produced with a measuring bar and accompanied by a short explanatory legend, which draws attention to distinctive features that help confirm diagnosis. Helminth eggs are illustrated in the first 36 photomicrographs, which show the diagnostic stages of the most common helminthes, including nematodes, cestodes, schistosomes, and other trematodes. The remaining photomicrographs offer advice on the more difficult task of detecting and identifying intestinal protozoan trophozoites and cysts. Relevant laboratory techniques are described on the reverse side of the plates. Additional laboratory aids include dichotomous keys for the identification of amoebic trophozoites trophozoites of intestinal flagellates, and cysts of amoebae and flagellates.
This manual focuses on how and when a set of low-cost or free drugs should be used in developing countries to control a set of diseases caused by worm infections. Preventive chemotherapy in this context means using drugs that are effective against a broad range of worm infections to simultaneously treat the four most common diseases caused by worms: river blindness (onchocerciasis), elephantiasis (lymphatic filariasis), schistosomiasis, and soil-transmitted helminthiasis. Significant opportunities also exist to integrate these efforts with the prevention and control of diseases such as trachoma. The new approach provides a critical first step in combining treatment regimens for diseases which, although different in themselves, require common resources and delivery strategies for control or elimination.
Schistosomiasis is a disease affecting over 200 million people in developing countries. It is caused by worms that need particular species of fresh water snails for completing their life cycle, and developments in Third World countries have spread and increased the severity of the disease. Dr Jordan describes a 15 year study on St Lucia, a mountainous Caribbean Island where isolated valleys provided ideal field laboratories for comparing the effects on transmission, the advantages and disadvantages of intensive snail control, environmental improvement (providing villages with water), and chemotherapy with newly available drugs. The project was staffed by a multidisciplinary team and their intensive programme led to successful control. This book describes the investigation, fully and readably. It will be valuable to all who work in the fields of tropical medicine, parasitology, epidemiology, community and environmental health, and vital to workers on schistosomiasis control in developing countries.
Human helminthiasis, known as worm infections, is any macroparasitic disease affecting humans, in which a part of the body is invaded by a lot of worms, known as helminths. They are broadly classified into flukes, tapeworms, and roundworms. Soil-transmitted helminthiasis and schistosomiasis are the most important, being included into the neglected tropical diseases. Helminthiasis has been found to result in poor birth outcome, less cognitive development, lower school and work performance, lower socioeconomic development, and poverty. Soil-transmitted helminthiases are responsible for parasitic infections in as much as a quarter of the human population worldwide. This group of infective diseases has been targeted under the joint action of the world's leading pharmaceutical companies and local governments, trying to achieve their eradication.
Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases Second Edition The neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are the most common infections of the world's poor, but few people know about these diseases and why they are so important. This second edition of Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases provides an overview of the NTDs and how they devastate the poor, essentially trapping them in a vicious cycle of extreme poverty by preventing them from working or attaining their full intellectual and cognitive development. Author Peter J. Hotez highlights a new opportunity to control and perhaps eliminate these ancient scourges, through alliances between nongovernmental development organizations and private-public partnerships to create a successful environment for mass drug administration and product development activities. Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases also Addresses the myriad changes that have occurred in the field since the previous edition. Describes how NTDs have affected impoverished populations for centuries, changing world history. Considers the future impact of alliances between nongovernmental development organizations and private-public partnerships. Forgotten People, Forgotten Diseases is an essential resource for anyone seeking a roadmap to coordinate global advocacy and mobilization of resources to combat NTDs.
A comprehensive guide to the technical and practical factors that need to be considered when designing and implementing programmes for the control of schistosomiasis. Noting the success of strategies focused on morbidity control, the report shows how the spectrum of programme goals can now be broadened to include reductions in the prevalence and intensity of established infections and decreases in the intensity of transmission. Throughout, emphasis is placed on knowledge and experiences that can help programme managers establish feasible goals and then select control options in line with the form of infection, its public health importance, the degree and type of morbidity, available resources, and integration into the primary health care system. Information is specific to the different types of schistosomiasis and the distinctive epidemiological features, clinical manifestations, and response to treatment of each. The report has three main parts. The first, which is devoted to strategies for control, gives programme managers a concise, yet complete review of all factors that need to be considered when establishing priorities and deciding on the most appropriate options for control. Emphasis is placed on the many recent advances, including experiences with praziquantel, that have strengthened the tools available for prevention, diagnosis, treatment, and cure. While noting the severe financial constraints faced in many endemic countries, the report cites recent findings and experiences that make it possible for each endemic country to take action against schistosomiasis, even when resources are scarce and health services limited. The second part gives specialists a detailed state-of-the-art review of all technical developments relevant to control. Separate sections describe the distinctive patterns of morbidity and mortality seen in each form of infection, update knowledge about the parasite and its mammalian hosts, and summarize what is known about the snail intermediate host and its susceptibility to control by molluscicides, biological agents, and environmental management. Other sections describe a range of advances in diagnostic tools, from hospital-based radiological investigations to the use of portable ultrasound equipment at the village level, and issue advice on treatmet and retreatment schedules for chemotherapy with praziquantel, metrifonate, and oxamniquine. The final part uses profiles of control programmes in 23 countries to document the feasibility of control and illustrate the diversity of approaches that can be applied according to different national conditions, forms and prevalence of infection, health care systems, and available resources.
