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Schistosoma mansoni and S. haematobium in the Yemen, Southwest Arabia: With a Report of an Unusual Factor in the Epidemiology of Schistosomiasis Mansoni

1952; American Society of Parasitologists; Volume: 38; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/3274167

1937-2345

Robert E. Kuntz,

Research on Leishmaniasis Studies

Evidence of the presence of Schistosoma haematobium in countries of the Near East, other than Egypt, was first indicated by Sturrock (1899) who reported that schistosomiasis haematobia was widely spread throughout Mesopotamia and as far as 900 miles above the mouth of the Tigris and the Euphrates rivers. Boulenger (1919), Hall (1925) and Neveu-Lemaire (1928) more definitely established the extensiveness of the disease in this part of the world. Felix (1924) discussed the importance of vesical schistosomiasis in Palestine and stated that physicians practicing in that country had known for some time that there was a local center of infection in the environs of Jaffa. The first real indication that schistosomiasis occurred farther south on the Arabian peninsula was given even before Sturrock's finding of S. haematobium in Mesopotamia. Hatch (1887) described twelve cases of vesical schistosomiasis that he had treated in India, where the disease does not occur. His patients were Moslems who had apparently acquired their infections during their pilgrimage to Mecca. Although the Hejaz was assumed to be the site of infection, no information was given concerning other places at which these persons may have contracted schistosomiasis enroute to Arabia. Durand (1926) in reporting schistosomiasis at Djanet in Tunisia also took into consideration the fact that Moslems in the community regularly made the pilgrimage to Mecca and probably returned to Djanet infected with schistosomes. However he realized that they may have acquired their infections on their return trip through Egypt. Greval (1922), although not in the Yemen, was the first to report schistosomiasis in persons from the Yemen proper. Infected individuals were found am6ng Yemeni admitted to the British hospital in Aden. One Yemeni infantryman from Dhala and a civilian employee from Al-Usmat were infected with S. haematobium. Two others, one from Eusafi (? Usaifira), and one from Makatira, while in the Indian Station Hospital, passed ova of S. mansoni. Sarnelli (1935), a physician who had resided in San'a, Yemen, for approximately two years, discussed at some length the importance of vesical schistosomiasis in the capital of the Yemen. Although he stated that schistosomiasis of the bladder was prevalent in San'a and vicinity, and found Bulinus, he made no mention of S. haemnatobium. Several years later Petrie (1939), also a resident of the Yemen for two years, in a general discussion of the diseases and conditions in the country implied that schistosomiasis was a rather common and an important disease in the Yemen, but he failed to specify the types of disease he had encountered. The prevalence of the schistosomiases in the Yemen,