Prevalence of schistosoma intercalatum and S. haematobium infection among primary schoolchildren in capital areas of democratic republic of Sao Tome and principe, west Africa

A parasitological survey of Schistosoma haematobium and S. intercalatum infection among primary schoolchildren in capital area of Democratic Republic of Sao Tom‚ and Pr¡ncipe [DRSTP] was undertaken. Subjects with positive infection were confirmed by the detection of S. haematobium ova in the urine or S. intercalatum ova in the stool by using centrifugation concentration or merthiolate-iodineformalin concentration method. Totally, 252 urine and stool samples, respectively, were obtained from apparently healthy schoolchildren, of which 121 from boys [9.8 +/- 1.4 yr] and 131 from girls [9.7 +/- 1.3 yr]. None of participating schoolchildren were found having S. haematobium ova in the urinary specimen. While, among 4 primary schools studied, only schoolchildren from Saint Mar‡al were detected with S. intercalatum ova in the fecal specimen, making the overall prevalence of S. intercalatum infection among schoolchildren was 2.4% [6/252] and girls had insignificantly higher prevalence [3.1%, 4/131] than that [1.7%, 2/121] in boys [chi [2] = 0.5, P = 0.5]. Water control and sanitation as well as snails eliminated by molluscicides are urgently needed to reduce S. intercalatum infection in DRSTP inhabitants