Schistosomiasis - Essay Sample

Introduction

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease associated with freshwater snails; it is often referred to as the bilharzia. The snail act as vectors to the flatworms which find their way into the human body through the skin in the form of cercariae. The parasites that cause schistosomiasis are Schistosoma japonicum, Schistosoma mansoni, Schistosoma intercalatum, and Schistosoma mekongi. Liver and kidney damage are some of the problems associated with the disease. Prevention of the disease is cheaper than the treatment. Containing the worms is hard since they hurriedly spread to the liver; damaging it. Repairing a damaged liver is difficult. There exist treatment measures, but then they are way too expensive. Failure to treat the first acute stage leads to the development of chronic infection.

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For the longest time, tropical diseases have been ignored yet they are responsible for a considerable percentage of mortality rates. Schistosomiasis is among these diseases and research study shows that it occurs in almost half of the nations in the world. According to Charles (King, 2010), the African continent is particularly affected by the disease but, little has been done to sensitize the people on the dangers of schistosomiasis. Apart from the problem of treatment, the disease affects the society economically. The fact that it occurs within the tropics means that countries within these zones are likely to experience slower economic growth. At the same time, the disease leads to the death of people of all ages. There are no particular ages that are prone to the worms. The difference is that young children and elderly individuals have lower immunity and thus contribute to a large percentage of the deaths.

On the same note, it is impossible to ignore the fact that the disease is treatable but at a high cost. This is because when the bug is reported in a specific location, the government has to offer treatment to all members of that locality and especially the children to avoid the emergence of chronic infection. The fact that the government has to treat all members' means that development is sabotaged in the hands of the disease. The disease is a real burden to both the society and the government and the families of the victims. They have to find means to cater to the medication. There is also some particular type of care that is to be offered to the patients and all these amounts to finances.

In most cases, it happens that most individuals do not experience symptoms until the very late stages. However, some appear a short while after infection while others may take several weeks for them to look. It happens that in 12 hours of disease, one may begin feeling ill. Others develop some rash that may be confused with scabies, but it is not (Kjetland et al., 2014). With time, the symptoms become more severe, and individuals begin experiencing coughs, gland enlargement and diarrhea. It reaches a time where individuals start to pass out blood in urine due to the damage caused on the kidneys by the worms. The eggs may also be present in the stool. In some cases, the eggs can migrate to the brain bringing about some inflammations.

Causes of the Disease/Treatment

The disease occurs when the skin of a healthy individual comes into contact with contaminated fresh water. In most cases, there exist some snails which carry the parasitic worms. The parasitic worms then find their way into individuals and end up laying eggs in the bodies. The larvae will be found in the urinary and digestive system hence they will lay eggs that are readily excreted into the environment. The eggs hatch and the cycle continues. According to Barsoum (2018), the specialized snails are however an integral part of the lifecycle of these parasitic worms. Washing, wading or swimming in contaminated water puts individuals in the risk of getting the disease as the larvae are likely to find their way into their bodies. The worms cause a lot of damage to the liver and the kidneys.Although there is no vaccine, schistosomiasis can be treated and controlled with praziquantel (PZQ), a drug developed in the 1970s by (Gonnert and Andrews,1977) and shortly after that identified as the treatment of choice by the World Health Organization (Greenberg,2013). Even though new antischistosomal compounds have been developed, there have not been any new drugs to treat the disease since the development of PZQ. PZQ has many advantages over any other drugs that have been potentially used because it is effective against all human schistosome species, while oxamniquine (which is still in limited use against Schistosoma mansoni infections) and the related drug hycanthone are not.

Pathogenesis

Kjetland et al. (2014) outline that bilharzia is unique among all diseases associated with worms in that the eggs released by the infections and the hosts immune systems are responsible for the pathology. The pathogenesis of the disease is categorized into three phases. The migratory period is the first, and it is known to be asymptomatic. The worms find their way into the bodies of individuals. It is difficult to feel them, but individuals with sensitive skins may develop transient dermatitis. The acute phase comes second. It begins when the adult worms release the first eggs. Depending on the individuals' immune systems, the release of the eggs triggers some allergic reactions. The immune complexes formed lead to aches and fatigue as well as discomforts of the gastrointestinal stem. When the eggs are in the digestive system, they can easily find their way. It is unfortunate that not all eggs can enter the gut.

The third phase is a result of the deposition of the eggs in the body. In the circulation of substances in the body, the eggs become trapped in some organs of the body where they elicit strong immune responses. With time, the eggs become surrounded by inflammatory cells and create a capsule around them (King and Dangerfield, 2008). The result is abdominal pains and difficulties in the flow of blood. Unfortunately, doctors can hardly diagnose the disease until the later stages when the eggs appear in the stool and bloody urine. Schistosomiasis is easy to contain as it is curable. Conditions associated with hygiene can be controlled easily as it is a matter of educating the public on what is to be done.

The Burden of the Disease

Schistosomiasis denotes a chronic and acute illness which is caused by parasitic worms. In most cases, schistosomiasis affects people while performing their domestic, routine agriculture, recreational activities, and occupation that expose them to infested water (del Villar, Burguillo, Lopez-Aban & Muro, 2012). About 206.4 million people are required to be provided with preventive approaches for schistosomiasis, but only 89 people were reported to have been treated. Therefore, schistosomiasis has been found to be caused by extreme unhygienic conditions (del Villar et al., 20120. In most cases, schistosomiasis can be contracted when people engage in swimming in infested swimming pools. The victims of schistosomiasis are advised to enhance adequate sanitation, reduce transmission through snail control and potable water.

Contracting schistosomiasis is done when there is a larval form of the parasite which is released in freshwater. The larval form is capable of penetrating the human skin whenever the people get in touch with the infested water. The morbidity rate of the schistosomiasis patients is reported to be in Africa. Kjetland et al. (2014) provide sufficient grounds for analyzing the two significant forms of schistosomiasis are urogenital and intestinal. They are reported to be caused by five main species of blood fluke.

Schistosomiasis has various distinctive symptoms that can help in adopting a quick treatment and prevention of the spread of the ailment. The signs are associated with diarrhea, abdominal pain, blood in stool and enlargement of the liver. The patients who experience such symptoms should be advised to visit the nearest health care center as a framework for attaining quick treatment and preventing further spread of the disease.

Discussion

According to the meta-analysis of schistosomiasis, (del Villar et al. (2012) outlined that the preventive treatment of schistosomiasis is supposed to be done repeated times for years to prevent the chances of recurring. The morbidity rates of schistosomiasis can be reduced extensively by targeting large-scale treatment and enhancing analysis of moderate-to-high transmission.

Outliers

A recent research study on the prevalence of Schistosoma mansoni by Annals of Africa Surgery (Bosire, Orwa, Mwachiro, Parker & White, 2018) revealed the species associated with schistosomiasis. The intestinal schistosomiasis species are Schistosoma mekongi, Schistosoma japonicum and Schistosoma mansoni (Bosire et al., 2018). The geographical distribution of the species is mostly in Africa, Venezuela, Middle East, Caribbean, Brazil, China, several districts in Cambodia and the Philippines. Schistosoma guineensis affects the countries that are located in the rainforests and areas of central Africa.

Solutions

Since schistosomiasis has been reported to affect areas of low socioeconomic status and rural dwellers, there is a need for public health officials to enact strategies for promoting life approaches for the people living in developing countries. It is essential that communities that depend on Agriculture and fishing for survival are educated on ways to enhance their life by protecting themselves from compromising situations that might cause them contract schistosomiasis. Domestic chores in infested water offer an increased possibility for contracting schistosomiasis. On the other hand, a national call to action would enhance the possible ways of preventing further spread of schistosomiasis among the communities that uphold a sedentary lifestyle and dwell on fishing and agriculture for survival.

Kjetland et al. (2014) provide sufficient information concerning the safety of women on genital schooliosis. Women performing domestic chores in the infested water are at a higher risk to contract female genital schistosomiasis (Kjetland et al., 2014). Public health officials are needed to discover approaches that will enhance the awareness of the vulnerable communities to shed light on the ways to adopt the required hygienic conditions. Research by Sete (2018) provides an opportunity for more work to be done regarding the effect of schistosomiasis on persons infected with HIV.

Ogden (2016) offers grounds for necessitating the need for advising the affected population to limit their mobility. Whenever there is an infection reported in a given community, there is the need to offer travel warns as a way of preventing the spread of the disease to the broader population. Secondly, there is the need to necessitate quarantine until the affected people are treated. The fact that schistosomiasis affects mostly the rural dwellers and communities that carry on domestic lifestyle, agricultural life or the communities that engage in fishing, the data offers a chance for coming up with a robust study on the possible ways of enhancing awareness and frequent testing of the water which is the primary mode of spreading schistosomiasis.

Specifying the specific symptoms of the different types of schistosomiasis can enable public health practitioners to prevent the patients from reaching an acute state of schistosomiasis. Barda, Coulibaly, Hatz, and Keiser (2017) asserted that there is the need for adopting an ultrasonography evaluation of the patients' urinary tract to speculate the morbidity of the school-aged, pre-school and older children to schistosomiasis. Additionally, the analysis of specific types of schistosomiasis can enable the affected population to enhance the required hygiene as a way of prevent...