The snails spreading fever across Africa.

Freshwater snails are spreading chronic disease across sub-Saharan Africa,the snails harbor parasitic schistomosoma worms that burrow into human skin.All it takes is a snail, a worm and some freshwater to become infected. Once you are, the disease could persist for decades -- and prove fatal. The culprits come as a pair: freshwater snails harboring parasitic worms. Once released from the snails, the worms can burrow into the skin and deep inside the body of any human daring to enter its waters The infection at hand is schistosomiasis -- also known as bilharzia -- a chronic infection caused by parasitic Schistomosa worms that can live inside blood vessels for years on end causing fever, chills and inflammation . "Any freshwater which has these snails in them could be the cause of infection," says Alan Fenwick, Professor of Tropical Parasitology at Imperial College London. The majority of infected waters are found in Africa, particularly the continent's largest lake -- Lake Victoria -- where risk of infection is high. The challenge in controlling the disease is that people often don't develop symptoms for years, but can continue to transmit the infection. Inside the human body, female worms grow into adults and lay eggs that migrate through the body for release in faeces. If released into freshwater -- through defecation in the water -- they hatch and become ready to infect any freshwater snails in their path. Once inside the snails, the young worms transform into versions of themselves now capable of burrowing back into human skin. On release back into the water they swim ready to, again, infect humans in their vicinity. It's a perpetual cycle in which the parasites use both snails and humans to their advantage, manipulating both, to ensure the survival of their species. The eggs of the parasites travel primarily to the intestine when inside humans, for release, but along this journey can become trapped in organs and intestinal lining to cause inflammation. The characteristic symptom of the disease is a swollen abdomen. More than 61 million people were treated for schistosomiasis in 2014, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), and more than 258 million required preventative treatment . The majority of cases are in Africa and outweigh numbers affected by other diseases in the region. The problem that sub Saharan Africa has is a lack of fresh water, safe water, and adequate sanitation .People who need to urinate and defecate tend to do so on the open ground, and their excreta can be washed into water where the eggs will then infect snails. According to WHO, 90% of those requiring treatment for schistosomiasis live in Africa, but most of them live around lake and river regions. The factor helping the disease persist, is poor sanitation. Infections primarily affect young children, but symptoms can take years to appear, making finding and treating those infected a challenge. The team has to proactively go out and find children who are infected and treat them so that we protect them from an early grave. The main control strategy to date has been mass treatment using the drug praziquantil. read more at http://edition.cnn.com/2016/02/09/health/snails-spread-schistosomiasis-in-africa/index.html