Epidemiological Survey of Human and Veterinary Schistosomiasis

Schistosomiasis is one of the fifteen neglected tropical diseases (NTDS) namely: schistosomiasis, ascariasis, buruli ulcer, chagas disease, cysticercosis, food borne trematodiases, hookworm dis‐ ease, leprosy,lymphatic filariasis, trachoma, trichuriasis, leishmaniasis, guinea worm, trypano‐ somiasis and oncocerciasis. It is a resurgent disease and Schistosoma sp. Infects well over 250 million people worldwide beside livestock [1]. Schistosomiasis (also called Bilharzias after the German tropical disease specialist, Theodore M. Bilharz, 1829 – 1862) is second only to malaria in parasitic disease morbidity. Despite control programmes in place, the distribution and the num‐ ber of people estimated to be infected or at risks have not reduced. Approximately, over 600 mil‐ lion people in tropical and subtropical countries are at risk and of those infected120 million are symptomatic with 20 million having severe manifestations. Schistosomiasis is endemic in many countries, not only in sub-Saharan Africa, but the Middle East, Far East, South and Central Amer‐ ica and the Caribbean. It is endemic in about 76 countries of the world including Nigeria. Present‐ ly, an estimated 3 million Nigerian children aged between 5 and 14 years are infected.