‘Win-win-win’ strategy reduces dangerous parasite infections in African villages

Tiny parasites can have huge consequences. Flatworms belonging to the genus Schistosoma infect hundreds of millions of people worldwide, causing pain and weakness, stunting the growth and cognitive development of children, and, in some people, leading to liver disease or cancer. Now, researchers have shown in a trial in Senegal that a simple intervention could reduce the risk of infection and break the resulting spiral of poverty and disease. When they removed from local rivers or lakes the aquatic plants that help the snails hosting the worms thrive, that slashed the rates of schistosomiasis, as the parasitic infection is known, in those villages. Local farmers benefited further by using the vegetation for fertilizer and animal feed. The study is a great example of a “win-win-win” scenario in public health, says Joanne Webster, a parasitologist at Imperial College London who studies schistosomiasis but wasn’t involved in the work. The intervention not only reduces parasite infections, but also provides financial benefits to farmers and reduces the impact of fertilizer on the environment. The parasites known as schistosomes divide their time between human hosts and water snails that thrive on the algae growing on freshwater aquatic plants. Infected people pass eggs with their urine and stool. If this happens in a pond or river, the eggs develop into larvae that infect certain snail species, in which they reproduce. Free-swimming larvae are then rel...
Source: Science of Aging Knowledge Environment - Category: Geriatrics Source Type: research