The incidence of schistosomiasis in South Central Africa

Abstract

The urinary bladder and rectum of each of 150 bodies of native African adults were obtained at autopsy and when digested in 10% KOH gave evidence of 98% infestation with Schistosoma eggs. Only 1 case of a pure infestation with S. mansoni was noted. Almost 50% showed a double infestation. S. haematobium is the more common form in the cases studied. A few unisexual infestations were found. Rectal and bladder snips were taken from the same cases and gave a fairly high (70 [plus or minus]) degree of correlation with the results found through digestion. Such snips may help in diagnosis of the presence of S. haematobium. but not of S. mansoni.