Schistosomiasis

Abstract

Schistosomiasis is a blood fluke infection that has affected mankind for over four thousand years. A description of haematuria in agricultural communities of the Great River Valley found in the Gynaecological Papyrus of Kahun circa 1900BC is recognised as the first recorded description of the disease. Its geographical distribution continues to expand, a 5th human pathogenic
schistosome, Schistosoma mekongi, having being described in Laos and Cambodia as recently as 1978.