Abstract
Background Schistosomiasis is caused by Schistosoma mansoni and S. haematobium in Africa. These schistosome parasites use freshwater snail intermediate hosts to complete their lifecycle. Varied prevalence rates of these parasites in the snail intermediate hosts were reported from several African countries, but there were no summarized data for policymakers. Therefore, this study was aimed to systematically summarize the prevalence and geographical distribution of S. mansoni and S. haematobium among freshwater snails in Africa. Methods Literature search was carried out from PubMed, Science Direct, and Scopus which reported the prevalence of S. mansoni and S. haematobium among freshwater snails in Africa. The pooled prevalence was determined using a random-effect model, while heterogeneities between studies were evaluated by I2 test. The meta-analyses were conducted using Stata software, metan command. Results A total of 273,643 snails were examined for the presence of S. mansoni and S. haematobium cercaria in the eligible studies. The pooled prevalence of schistosome cercaria among freshwater snails was 5.5% (95% CI: 4.9–6.1%). The pooled prevalence of S. mansoni and S. haematobium cercaria was 5.6% (95% CI: 4.9–6.3%) and 5.2% (95% CI: 4.6–5.7%), respectively. The highest pooled prevalence was observed from Nigeria (19.0%; 95% CI: 12.7–25.3%), while the lowest prevalence was reported from Chad (0.05%; 95% CI: 0.03–0.13). Higher prevalence of schistosome cercaria was observed from Bulinus globosus (12.3%; 95% CI: 6.2–18.3%) followed by Biomphalaria sudanica (6.7%; 95% CI: 4.5–9.0%) and Biomphalaria pfeifferi (5.1%; 95% CI: 4.1–6.2%). The pooled prevalence of schistosome cercaria obtained using PCR was 26.7% in contrast to 4.5% obtained by shedding cercariae. Conclusion This study revealed that nearly 6% of freshwater snails in Africa were infected by either S. haematobium or S. mansoni. The high prevalence of schistosomes among freshwater snails highlights the importance of appropriate snail control strategies in Africa.
Highlights
Schistosomiasis is one of the neglected tropical diseases (NTD) endemic in 78 countries and infects more than 229 million peoples in tropical and subtropical regions [1]
Several epidemiological studies are available on the types and prevalence of human infecting schistosomes among snail intermediate hosts in Africa. Up to this time, there has not been any single estimate of the prevalence of S. mansoni and S. haematobium in snail intermediate hosts in Africa that could be used by African policymakers and international organizations working on the prevention and control of schistosomiasis in the continent. erefore, this study aimed to provide summarized data on the prevalence and geographical variations of S. mansoni and S. haematobium cercaria among freshwater snails in Africa
Characteristics of Subjects in the Eligible Studies. e eligible articles were obtained from 17 African countries: Angola [18], Benin [19], Burkina Faso [20], Burundi [21], Chad [22], Cote d’Ivoire [23, 24], Egypt [25,26,27,28,29,30], Ethiopia [31,32,33,34,35,36], Kenya [37,38,39], Mali [40, 41], Niger [42, 43], Nigeria [44,45,46,47,48,49,50,51,52,53,54], Senegal [55, 56], Sudan [57], Tanzania [58,59,60,61,62,63], Uganda [64,65,66,67], and Zimbabwe [68]
Summary
Schistosomiasis is one of the neglected tropical diseases (NTD) endemic in 78 countries and infects more than 229 million peoples in tropical and subtropical regions [1]. Human schistosomiasis is caused by Schistosoma mansoni, S. haematobium, S. japonicum, S. intercalatum, S. mekongi, S. malayensis, and S. guineensis [5,6,7]. Schistosoma mansoni and S. haematobium are widely distributed and the dominant cause of human schistosomiasis in Africa [5]. Schistosomiasis is caused by Schistosoma mansoni and S. haematobium in Africa. Erefore, this study was aimed to systematically summarize the prevalence and geographical distribution of S. mansoni and S. haematobium among freshwater snails in Africa. Literature search was carried out from PubMed, Science Direct, and Scopus which reported the prevalence of S. mansoni and S. haematobium among freshwater snails in Africa. E pooled prevalence of schistosome cercaria among freshwater snails was 5.5% (95% CI: 4.9–6.1%). Is study revealed that nearly 6% of freshwater snails in Africa were infected by either S. haematobium or S. mansoni. Conclusion. is study revealed that nearly 6% of freshwater snails in Africa were infected by either S. haematobium or S. mansoni. e high prevalence of schistosomes among freshwater snails highlights the importance of appropriate snail control strategies in Africa
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