Abstract
Schistosomiasis is the second most prevalent tropical parasitic disease after malaria, and one of the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in developing countries especially in Africa. This study was carried out among students, farmers and fishermen/women from four villages in the Central River Region of The Gambia. The aim of this study was to show the prevalence value of schistosomiasis in Central River Region of The Gambia. Questionnaires were administered to acquire data such as age, gender, prior schistosomiasis infection and treatment. One hundred and ninety-five blood and 192 urine samples collected from 117 females and 78 males were examined. Microscopy, ELISA and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) techniques were used to detect and characterize schistosome isolates from the biological samples. Prevalence of Schistosoma haematobium was 28.7 with 41.0% in males and 23.9% in females. The highest prevalence value among the villages was in Brikama Ba with 53.1% while the age group 6-15 years had the highest prevalence of 50.0%. Schistosoma mansoni was only detected in Jahally village (1.5%). Schistosomiasis detection was highest using ELISA (40%) and lowest using microscopy (24.5%). PCR gave a 28.7% prevalence value. Key words: Prevalence, Schistosoma, diagnostic techniques, Central River Region.
Highlights
Schistosomiasis is a chronic disease well known as bilharzia or snail fever, parasitic flukes of the genus Schistosoma cause it
This study revealed that there is endemicity of S. haematobium in Central River Region (CRR) of The Gambia with a prevalence of 28.7% among school children, farmers and fishermen/women
This is in agreement with findings from the previous study that revealed high transmission rate of 14.2% for S. haematobium infection in CRR (Gambia neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) Mapping Report, 2015)
Summary
Schistosomiasis is a chronic disease well known as bilharzia or snail fever, parasitic flukes of the genus Schistosoma cause it. It remains extremely prevalent in many low-income and middle-income countries (Steinauer et al, 2008; Colley et al, 2014; Adenowo et al, 2015: Oboh et al, 2018; Li et al, 2019). The name bilharzia was coined from the name of Theodor Bilharz, a German surgeon. He was the first to recognize the etiological agent Schistosoma haematobium in 1851 while working in Cairo, Egypt (Nour, 2010).
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