Sustainable plans needed to control schistosomiasis

Controlling schistosomiasis requires long-term, sustainable programmes of intervention, a new study has indicated.

Researchers led by the University of Queensland's Dr Archie Clements wrote in the Public Library of Science Neglected Tropical Diseases journal that the disease has now regressed to pre-intervention levels in Mali.

The condition is a parasitic disease that is caused by a number of different species of fluke of the genus Schistosoma and can impair growth and cause chronic illness, especially in children.

Dr Clements commented that historic data should be used to develop a contemporary plan of action to fight the disease.

"However, if these control programme are to have a sustainable impact on the burden of schistosomiasis they must be delivered over a very long time period, or supplementary methods need to be implemented, such as improvement in water sanitation and hygiene," he added.

Mali was one of the first sub-Saharan African countries to implement a national schistosomiasis control programme in 1998.

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