Contents

#### **Preface XI**


Matheus Fernandes Costa-Silva\*\*, Denise da Silveira-Lemos\*\*, Amanda Cardoso de Oliveira Silveira, Pedro Henrique Gazzinelli-Guimarães, Helena Barbosa Ferraz, Cristiano Lara Massara, Martin Johannes Enk, Maria Carolina Barbosa Álvares, Olindo Assis Martins-Filho, Paulo Marcos Zech Coelho, Rodrigo Corrêa-Oliveira, Giovanni Gazzinelli and Andréa Teixeira-Carvalho


Preface

transmission.

Schistosomiasis is a major public health problem in 76 countries of the developing world, yet information on prevalence and risk maps is incomplete, and often contradictory. To correct this caveat, Ricardo J.P.S. Guimarães et al. created a Geographic Information System (GIS) database, containing all social and socieconomic factors, and environmental variables, such as snail distribution, vegetation index, precipitation, temperature, and sanitation, at small communities and city levels in the Minas Gerais State, Brazil. The database was used together with multiple linear regressions to estimate the schistosomiasis positivity index, and build a schistosomiasis risk map for Minas Gerais State. The methodology used in this study can be utilized to control schistosomiasis in the areas with occurrence of the disease, and can also be used to take preventive measures to decrease or eradicate the disease

Akande and Odetola relied on community-based pilot control trials for obtaining correct and accurate estimates of schistosomiasis prevalence in Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Nigeria. Monday Francis Useh, in his chapter: Schistosomiasis, specifically reported that Schistosoma haematobium and Schistosoma mansoni infections have been widely detected in all parts of Nigeria although the former predominates. A total of 30 million Nigerians, 18% of 162 millions population, are infected with schistosomiasis, with the school age children carying the greatest burden of the disease. Of note, infection with S. haematobium was reported in all the regions in Nigeria with a prevalence as high as 60-75% among schoolchildren in some communities. N'Guessan Aya Nicaise proposed lasting solutions for fighting schistosomiasis in the Cote d'Ivoire, where urinary schistosomiasis, and soil-transmitted helminthiasis (especially hookworms), which infect > 50% of the population, prevail. The study was conducted in epidemiological context of large dam in Côte-d'Ivoire, in Taabovillage, a hyperendemic schistosomiasis locality located near Lake of the great dam Taabo, with prevalence of urinary schistosomiasis among school children reaching 94% at the start of the study. Awareness campaigns and treatments were carried out by the school teachers and Community health workers. Sociological surveys were made before treatment to understand risk behaviors. Nevertheless, slight reduction in prevalence to 74% was obtained, likely due to continuous transmission of the parasite. It was noteworthy that there was no enthusiasm for the treatment, for the simple reason that these parasites are considered by the majority of the population as non-serious illnesses and less dreadful.

The Chapters in the section "Clinical Schistosomiasis" are thus timely elaborating on the dangers not only of chronic, but also of acute schistosomiasis. According to Matheus Fernandes Costa-Silva et al., the clinical findings most commonly observed in acute schistosomiasis patients include fever, general weakness, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, anorexia, colic, weight loss, dry cough and hepatosplenomegaly accompanied by a

Chapter 9 **Solving the Riddle of the Lung-Stage Schistosomula Paved the Way to a Novel Remedy and an Efficacious Vaccine for Schistosomiasis 179**

Rashika El Ridi and Hatem Tallima
