Prevalence of Schistosomiasis among the Bavaido Village Peasants and the Residents of Tshopo River at Kisangani- DR. Congo

Abstract

Schistosomiasis is a pathology, today called Neglected Tropical Disease (NTD). It is a chronic parasitic disease caused by flatworms called Schistosoma or bilharzia, transmitted to humans by a freshwater mollusc. This disease is the 2nd most common parasitic disease in the world. According to the WHO, bilharzia is endemic in 76 countries, 42 of which are situated in Africa. 700 million people are exposed to it worldwide and of the 207 million people infected, the vast majority (85%) live in Africa. This study was conducted 24 kilometres from the city of Kisangani on the old Buta road in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The population was made up of people living in the Bavaido village and the camp on the banks of the Tshopo River and aged between 0 and 59 years. A sampling of 194 urine and stool samples, 84 of which were taken from the inhabitants of Bavaido and 110 from the inhabitants of the camp, was used to carry out this investigation. This descriptive - cross-sectional study carried out from October 29 to November 19, 2018, aims to determine the prevalence of Schistosomiasis in the two settings of our study. At the end of our investigations, we observed that: urine samples revealed 2.4% positive Schistosoma haematobium in Bavaido versus 54.5% positive in the camp, while stool samples revealed 4.8% positive Schistosoma mansoni in Bavaido versus 7.3% positive in the camp and the age group of 0 - 9 years was more affected with 43.55% of positive results and the female sex predominates with 56.45% positive cases. Furthermore, the predominance of haematuria samples was more prevalent in females (64.7%) than in males (35.3%), making medical interventions appropriate for this population.