Breakthrough on killer worm genes

New treatments for a disease which kills thousands every year have moved a step closer after scientists unlocked the genetic structure of two parasitic flatworms responsible for transmitting the illness.

Schistomiasis is caused by the schistosoma mansoni and schistosoma japonicum worms, which are hosted by small water-dwelling snails.

When people enter water containing the snails, the worms burrow into the skin and infect the blood.

Schistomiasis infects around 200 million annually, with 20 million suffering severe disability as a result, while in sub-Saharan Africa 280,000 people die from the disease every year.

But now researchers have published a study in the journal Nature which describes the genetic nature of the parasites and has lead to new avenues for possible treatments.

"The genome sequence has given us, for the first time, a comprehensive view of the engines that drive the parasite, the strategies that allow it to survive in us, its human host," said researcher Dr Najib El-Sayed, from the University of Maryland.

"It is a catalogue of opportunities."

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