Urogenital Schistosomiasis: No Longer a Diagnosis of the Developing World

Schistosomiasis is a chronic, parasitic disease caused by the blood flukes (trematode worms) of the genus Schistosoma. There are two major forms of schistosomiasis, intestinal and urogenital. The blood fluke Schistosoma haematobium causes urogenital schistosomiasis, with its highest prevalence in Africa and the Middle East. Given the emerging migrant populations in Australia, from the Africa and Middle East, urogenital schistosomiasis needs to be given consideration in differential diagnosis of patients with renal colic, cystitis, haematuria and urinary tract stricture/ obstruction. Travel history is also pertinent to diagnosis. The burden of schistosomiasis in the developing world is remarkably high, with 243 million people requiring treatment in 2011. With the increase of migrant populations to Australia, the burden of disease and its implications need to be acknowledged in the developed world. *Corresponding author: Mahesha Weerakoon, Room 8244, Level 8, Harold-Stokes Building, Austin Hospital, 145 Studley Road, Heidelberg, Victoria 3141, Australia, Tel: +61 3 9496 5458; Fax: +61 3 9496 3617; E-mail: [email protected] Received July 06, 2013; Accepted July 26, 2013; Published July 28, 2013 Citation: Weerakoon M, Ow D, Wetherell D, Beharry BK, Williams D, et al. (2013) Urogenital Schistosomiasis: No Longer a Diagnosis of the Developing World. Med Surg Urol 2: 109. doi:10.4172/2168-9857.1000109 Copyright: © 2013 Weerakoon M, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.