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

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.

Cross reactions in the immunodiagnosis of schistosomiasis and cysticercosis by a cerebrospinal fluid enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay.

Cerebrospinal fluid was collected from 3 groups of patients (suspected cysticercosis patients, myelopathy patients, and neurological patients) and assayed for antibodies to Cysticercus cellulosae and schistosome soluble egg antigen. In the myelopathy and neurological patients there was a significant correlation (P less than 0.05) between seropositivity for the two diseases.

Sero-epidemiological studies of cysticercosis in school children from two rural areas of Transkei, South Africa.

Anticysticercus antibody titre levels were measured in the sera of 1352 school children from two rural areas of Transkei with different climatic conditions, in the southeastern seaboard of South Africa. The overall seropositivity rate was 5.5%, while the rates for children with good and poor nutritional status were 7.

Spinal cord schistosomiasis. A clinical, laboratory and radiological study, with a note on therapeutic aspects.

Fourteen patients with schistosomiasis of the spinal cord are described. They fall into two groups: 7 patients had clinical and computer-assisted myelographic evidence of lesions in the conus medullaris or cauda equina, or both. The clinical picture in the remaining 7 patients was usually that of acute or subacute transverse myelitis with normal or equivocal CT myelographic appearances.

The value of immunological approaches to the diagnosis of schistosomal myelopathy.

Myelopathy due to schistosome infection is a rare, yet probably frequently unrecognized, form of schistosomiasis. This condition is clinically difficult to diagnose, and without specific biopsy evidence final confirmation relies largely on circumstantial evidence. We describe here immunological attempts to diagnose schistosomal myelopathy.