Schistosomiasis

schistosomiasis, also called bilharzia or bilharziasis, group of chronic disorders caused by small parasitic flatworms (family Schistosomatidae) commonly called blood flukes. Schistosomiasis is characterized by inflammation of the intestines, bladder, liver, and other organs. Next to malaria, it is probably humanity’s most serious parasitic infection, being endemic to some 78 countries and affecting some 240 million people yearly in Africa, Asia, South America, and the Caribbean. Schistosomiasis is most prevalent in rural communities where hygiene is poor due to poverty or due to the lack of infrastructure to support adequate health care services. The disease is ordinarily contracted by working, bathing, or swimming in water populated by snails that carry the worms. The parasites were first identified as a cause of the disease in the 1850s by Theodor Bilharz, a German pathologist working in Egypt.