Praziquantel is the recommended treatment against all forms of schistosomiasis. It is effective, safe, and low-cost. Even though re-infection may occur after treatment, the risk of developing severe disease is diminished and even reversed when treatment is initiated and repeated in childhood.
Schistosomiasis control has been successfully implemented over the past 40 years in several countries, including Brazil, Cambodia, China, Egypt, Mauritius, Islamic Republic of Iran, Oman, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Tunisia, etc. In Burundi, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Niger, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, the United Republic of Tanzania, and Yemen, it has been possible to scale-up schistosomiasis treatment to the national level and have an impact on the disease in a few years. An assessment of the status of transmission is required in several countries.
Over the past 10 years, there has been scale-up of treatment campaigns in a number of sub-Saharan countries, where most of those at risk live.
Schistosomiasis
Schistosomiasis is a disease of poverty that leads to chronic ill-health. Infection is acquired when people come into contact with fresh water infested with the larval forms (cercariae) of parasitic blood flukes, known as schistosomes. The microscopic adult worms live in the veins draining the urinary tract and intestines. Most of the eggs they lay are trapped in the tissues and the body’s reaction to them can cause massive damage.
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