Epidemiology and control of schistosomiasis mansoni in communities living on the Cuando River floodplain of East Caprivi, Namibia

Abstract

The Cuando River area of eastern Caprivi, Namibia, is highly endemic for Schistosoma mansoni whereas S. haematobium transmission, due to the scarcity of its intermediate host snail, Bulinus africanus, does not occur. Chemotherapy (6-monthly blanket treatments with praziquantel) combined with focal mollusciciding (monthly application of niclosamide) was used in a project in the area to control the disease. Although as many adults and pre-school children as possible were tested and treated, the project concentrated largely on school-age children. It took 3 years for prevalence to decline from >80% to 20% because of a lack of proper sanitary facilities and piped water supplies and high rates of absenteeism and re-infection. However, intensity of infection decreased more rapidly, from an arithmetic mean of >200 to <5 eggs/g faeces. Hepatomegaly was common among school children when the project started but could be seen in only a small percentage of them after 3 years of control. Neither the bovine schistosome, S. mattheei, nor the lechwe schistosomes, S. margrebomei and S. leiperi, were observed in the excreta of humans living in the area.