The Life Histories of Intermediate Hosts and Parasites of and in the White Nile River, Sudan

Overview

Journal Int J Environ Res Public Health

Publisher MDPI

Specialties Environmental Health
Public Health

Date 2022 Feb 15

PMID 35162527

Authors

Hassan Ahmed Hassan Ahmed Ismail

Abed El Aziz Abed El Rahim Mohamed Ahmed

Seungman Cha

Yan Jin

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

Background: The epidemiology of schistosomiasis transmission varies depending on the circumstances of the surrounding water bodies and human behaviors. We aimed to explore cercarial emergence patterns from snails that are naturally affected by human schistosomiasis and non-human trematodes. In addition, this study aimed to explore how schistosomiasis infection affects snail survival, reproduction, and growth.

Methods: We measured the survival rate, fecundity, and size of snails and the cercarial rhythmicity of and . The number of egg masses, eggs per egg mass, and snail deaths were counted for 7 weeks. The survival rate and cumulative hazard were assessed for infected and non-infected snails.

Results: and cercariae peaked at 9:00-11:00 a.m. Infection significantly reduced the survival rate of , which was 35% and 51% for infected and non-infected snails, respectively ( = 0.02), at 7 weeks after infection. The hazard ratio of death for infected snails compared to non-infected snails was 1.65 (95% confidence interval: 1.35-1.99; = 0.01).

Conclusions: An understanding of the dynamics of schistosomiasis transmission will be helpful for formulating schistosomiasis control and elimination strategies. Cercarial rhythmicity can be reflected in health education, and the reproduction and survival rate of infected snails can be used as parameters for developing disease modeling.

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