Does a person with schistosomiasis infects others?

Answer 1

Schistosomiasis, also known as bilharziasis or snail fever, is a primarily tropical parasitic disease caused by the larvae of one or more of five types of flatworms or blood flukes known as schistosomes. The name bilharziasis comes from Theodor Bilharz, a German pathologist, who identified the worms in 1851.

Infections associated with worms present some of the most universal health problems in the world. In fact, only malaria accounts for more diseases than schistosomiasis. The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that 200 million people are infected and 120 million display symptoms. Another 600 million people are at risk of infection. Schistosomes are prevalent in rural and outlying city areas of 74 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. In Central China and Egypt, the disease poses a major health risk.

Causes and symptoms

All five species are contracted in the same way, through direct contact with fresh water infested with the free-living form of the parasite known as cercariae. The building of dams, irrigation systems, and reservoirs, and the movements of refugee groups introduce and spread schistosomiasis.

Eggs are excreted in human urine and feces and, in areas with poor sanitation, contaminate freshwater sources. The eggs break open to release a form of the parasite called miracidium. Freshwater snails become infested with the miracidium, which multiply inside the snail and mature into multiple cercariae that the snail ejects into the water. The cercariae, which survive outside a host for 48 hours, quickly penetrate unbroken skin, the lining of the mouth, or the gastrointestinal tract. Once inside the human body, the worms penetrate the wall of the nearest vein and travel to the liver where they grow and sexually mature. Mature male and female worms pair and migrate either to the intestines or the bladder where egg production occurs. One female worm may lay an average of 200 to 2,000 eggs per day for up to twenty years. Most eggs leave the blood stream and body through the intestines. Some of the eggs are not excreted, however, and can lodge in the tissues. It is the presence of these eggs, rather than the worms themselves, that causes the disease.

Prevention:

Prevention of the disease involves several targets and requires long term community commitment. Infected patients require diagnosis, treatment, and education about how to avoid reinfecting themselves and others. Adequate healthcare facilities need to be available, water systems must be treated to kill the worms and control snail populations, and sanitation must be improved to prevent the spread of the disease.

To avoid schistosomiasis in endemic areas:

contact the CDC for current health information on travel destinations.

upon arrival, ask an informed local authority about the infestation of schistosomiasis before being exposed to freshwater in countries that are likely to have the disease.

do not swim, stand, wade, or take baths in untreated water.

treat all water used for drinking or bathing. Water can be treated by letting it stand for three days, heating it for five minutes to around 122°F (around 50°C), or filtering or treating water chemically, with chlorine or iodine, as with drinking water.

Should accidental exposure occur, infection can be prevented by hastily drying off or applying rubbing alcohol to the exposed area.

...good luck.

Answer 2

The parasite has a complex life cycle, and needs some particular species of freshwater snails to continue living and breeding.

A person with schistosomiasis does not directly infect other people. If a person sheds eggs they then can infect the snail, develop further, and only then infect other people.

The snail only lives in certain parts of the world, mainly tropical areas like Egypt and Sudan, East Asia and the Carribean. If there is no snail then the infection can't be passed on.

Answer 3

Infection occurs when skin comes into contact with contaminated fresh water in which certain freshwater snails are hosts to the Schistosoma blood fluke. The snails release the free-swimming larvae which can survive for 48 hours outside of a host. They quickly penetrate the skin and enter the bloodstream. From there they can travel to any part of the body and are also excreted in urine and feces. Fresh water becomes contaminated when infected people urinate or defecate in it. This is how one person can infect another.

Answer 4

What's that? maybe then I could tell you. But if it's what I think it is then no.