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Cross-sectional and evolutive studies of schistosomiasis mansoni in untreated and mass treated endemic areas in the southeast and northeast of Brazil

1992; Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Ministério da Saúde; Volume: 87; Issue: suppl 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1590/s0074-02761992000800027

1678-8060

José Rodrigues Coura, Maria José Conceição, M L dos Santos, Zélia Goes de Mendonça, Raimundo Nonato Martins Cutrim,

Child Nutrition and Water Access

Cross-sectional and evolutive studies on schistosomiasis mansoni were carried out before and after mass treatment in the endemic areas of Capitão Andrade and Padre Paraiso, state of Minas Gerais, Riachuelo, state of Sergipe, Alhandra, state of Paraiba, and Aliança, Alegre and Coroatá, lowland of the state of Maranhão, Brazil, in the last eighteen years. The studies included clinical and fecal examination by the Kato-Katz quantitative technique, skin test for Schistosoma mansoni infection, evaluation of man-water contact and other epidemiological investigations such as infection rate and dynamic of the snail population. Results showed: (1) Higher prevalence of S. mansoni infection, greater egg load elimination and higher and earlier morbidity of the chronic forms of the disease in the southeast areas of Capitão Andrade and Padre Paraiso; (2) The incidence of hepatosplenic form is higher in some family clusters, in whites and mulattos in all the endemic areas but develop earlier in the southeast; (3) The prevalence and morbidity of schistosomiasis are decreasing both in the mass treated northeast and in the untreated southeast areas; (4) The mass treatment reduces rapidly the prevalence of the infection and the morbidity of the disease but can not control it because of the frequent reinfections due to the intensity of man-water contact.