Medical Questions » Travel Questions » Question No. 995
| Question: | My daughter married a Rhodesian man some years ago, and has moved to Zimbabwe to live. She wrote saying that she had caught a disease called ' Bilharsia' , but not to worry. Naturally I am worried, but my own GP says he has never heard of it. Do you know anything about it? How serious it can be? |
| Answer: | This disease cannot be caught in Australia, as it is transmitted by a species of snail that is not found in this country.
Bilharzia can be caught by bathing in fresh-water streams, rivers and lakes in Egypt, tropical Africa as far south as Zimbabwe, the Caribbean and eastern South America. It is caused by a microscopic animal called a fluke (nematode) that enters into the body by burrowing through the skin, often of the foot.
Once into the bloodstream, the fluke travels to the veins around the large bowel. Here, eggs are laid, and pass out with the faeces or urine to infect water supplies. Once in the water, the eggs hatch, and the larvae seek out and butrow into the flesh of certain species of fresh water snail. Here they mature, and emerge from the snail ready to enter and infect another human host.
The first symptom is an itchy patch at the site of skin penetration. Varying symptoms then follow, depending on the areas affected. Patients are infectious for a week or more before the symptoms become apparent, and so it is difficult to stop the spread of this disease by the fluke as it moves through the body, and the individual' s reaction to those changes. Long-term symptoms include diarrhoea, abdominal pain and bloody urine.
A number of drugs can be used to kill the fluke inside the body. The outcome of treatment is good if commenced early in the course of the disease but advanced disease may be difficult to cure. You should hold no great fears for your daughter, because doctors in Zimbabwe are very experienced in the treatment of this condition, and she should recover after a few weeks ol medication.
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