Schistosoma And Human Schistosomiasis

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.

This textbook focus on the infectious disease of Schistosomiasis. This book is a monograph which gives the information only on specific infection. It aims to provide a comprehensive description of the concept, skill and awareness on schistosoma. It describes in detail on the evolution, pathology, pathophysiology, life cycle, diagnosis and treatment of Schistosoma infection. This book also useful for scholars, pharmacists, physicians, and all healthcare sectors. This book also provides awareness to the general population. It is described specifically in detail by framing different chapters.

According to the author, the book addresses to all the scientists and not only to immunologists or biologists of European countries who are engaged in developing a vaccine, or a diagnostic kit or a new drug against the infection or on schistosome evolution. Even these scientists have to visit endemic countries for field trials or ask their counterparts to collect field data (which this book addresses ). Thus this book is not on molecular fundamentals but on the infection itself; how schistosome species are responding to the drug ; sensitivity and specificity of immunodiagnostic kits, antigen molecules; snail compatibility, production losses; schistosome evolution; schistosome outbreaks; complexities where more than two schistosome species are existing; problem of human schistosomiasis in South Asia etc In fact , all the topics of great interest to international scientists and scientists of endemic countries.

Schistosomiasis is a public health problem in tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, Asia, the Caribbean and South America. It is one of the neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) - a group of diseases and conditions that affect particularly low-income populations, worldwide. Last year, WHO launched a new road map for 2021-2030 that aims to end the suffering from NTDs by 2030, in line with the Sustainable Development Goals. The road map specifically targets the elimination of schistosomiasis as a public health problem, globally. This guideline provides evidence-based recommendations in the following areas: prevalence thresholds, target age groups and frequency of PC, establishment of WASH and snail control activities to support control and elimination of schistosomiasis, diagnostic tests for the assessment of schistosomiasis infection in animal reservoirs, in snail hosts, and in humans. The guideline will provide support to Member States, programme managers, health workers and other stakeholders on the implementation of national schistosomiasis control and elimination programme.

This volume brings together updated fundamental knowledge of the schistosomes, their biology and epidemiology, the mechanism of disease and a full description of the pathological sequelae and clinical syndromes in humans. It concludes with chapters on diagnosis and treatment prospects of vaccine development and the most significant controversies regarding immunology and epidemiology.

Knowledge in the field of parasitology must be kept at a high level and up to date in order to fight a parasitosis as quickly and effectively as possible. The third edition of this, one of Springer’s renowned and authoritative Major Reference Works, contributes to these goals in several ways. First, the number of entries has been increased by about 30%. Secondly the content has been improved even more by adding additional tables and figures. Thirdly, the extensive linking between definitions and essays facilitates information within a minimum of time. More than 40 international contributors, who are well known specialists in their fields, give a comprehensive review of all parasites and therapeutic strategies in veterinarian and human parasitology.

Helminths include one of the most diverse and geographically widespread groups of parasites which infect humans and animals. About 100 species have been reported from humans, usually producing asymptomatic infection or mild symptoms. However, about 20 species are of public health importance causing severe or even fatal infections. In many parts of Africa parasitic helminths are responsible for enormous economic losses, hampering rural development programmes and reducing the pace of economic growth. Many parasitic helminths are either zoonoses (diseases naturally transmitted between vertebrate animals and man) or have evolved from animal parasites. The modification of the environment through wars, famine and the ever expanding and increasingly mobile human population brings people into close contact with new environments and wildlife species which makes the study and control of zoonoses of special interest and complexity. In Africa, the transmission of helminth parasites is highly influenced by the ever changing social and cultural differences between diverse groups of peoples and their interaction with wild and domestic animals. It is not surprising, therefore, that approaches to the study and control of parasitic zoonoses require intersectoral cooperation between physicians, veterinarians, parasitologists, zoologists, demographers, anthropologists, engineers and economists to provide the breadth of knowledge and expertise required to develop our understanding of these diseases and to devise methods for their control. This book provides a selective compilation of parasitic helminths, many of which are zoonoses which create important economic and public health problems in Africa.

Evaluates the carcinogenic risk to humans posed by infection with three schistosoma trematodes, three liver flukes and the bacterium Helicobacter pylori. These biological agents were selected for evaluation on the basis of evidence suggesting a causal association between infection and the development of human cancers. The first monograph assesses data on Schistosoma haematobium S. mansoniand S. japonicum, the three species which account for the vast majority of schistosomal disease in humans. The most extensive sections evaluate the results of studies of cancer in humans and experimental animals, concentrating on the strength of evidence linking infection with S. haematobium to squamous-cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder, and infection with S. mansoni or S. japonicum to an increased risk for cancers of the gastrointestinal tract. The monograph concludes that infection with S. haematobium is carcinogenic to humans and that infection with S. japonicum is possibly carcinogenic to humans; infection with S. mansoni could not be classified. The second monograph on liver flukes evaluates data on Opisthorchis viverriniO. felineus and Clonorchis sinensis. These foodborne trematodes establish a chronic infection of the bile ducts and more rarely the pancreatic duct and gall-bladder of humans and other mammals. Most carcinogenicity data centre on the possibility that these trematodes are involved in the development of cholangiocarcinoma or liver cancer. The monograph concludes that infection with O. viverrini is carcinogenic to humans and that infection with C. sinensis is probably carcinogenic to humans; infection with O. felineus could not be classified. The final monograph evaluates data on Helicobacter pylori. More than half of the world's population may be infected with this bacterium, which is responsible for most cases of chronic gastritis and duodenal ulcer. Citing several studies linking infection to gastric cancer in humans, the monograph concludes that infection with H. pylori is carcinogenic to humans.