Schistosomiasis in Mauritius

Abstract

Schistosomiasis in Mauritius is due to S. haematobium and is wide spread among Indians and Creoles[long dash]probably because of occupational (agricultural) hazards and not because of any racial difference in susceptibility or immunity. Many more males are infected than females; the incidence being highest in school children, adolescents and young adults. The natural snail host was not detd., but Bulinus forskali was shown experimentally to be the only snail capable of so functioning. Epidemiological evidence points toward this snail as being the probable natural vector although field infections with the schistosomes have never been discovered. The use of the cercarial antigen skin test produced such conflicting results in this survey that it was abandoned as misleading, although similar tests in Rhodesia were highly specific.