High prevalence and morbidity of Schistosoma mansonialong the Albert Nile in Uganda.

Emmanuel I. Odongo-Aginya, Lorenz Grigull, Ulrich Schweigmann, Tom Loroni-Lakwo , Jochem HH
Enrich, Bruno Gryseels , Ekkehard Doehring.
Uganda Virus Research Institute, Entebbe, Uganda.
Rosa Luxemburg Str. 3 16 816 Neuruppin Germany edoehring@t-online.de Tel: 0049 – 33 91 – 65 95 51
Herzzentrum leizig, Leipzig, Germany.
Laboratory of Parasitology, State University of Leiden, Leiden, The Netherlands.

ABSTRACT
An epidemiological cross sectional study of Schistosoma mansoniwas conducted in two hyper endemic fishing villages of Rhino Camp and Obongi both in West Nile district in northern Uganda in 1991 and 1992. People with various water contacts were registered. A small group of civil servants and clergies with less water contact in the river Nile were studied for control of infection and morbidity.

An overall prevalence of 81.5% of the 1367 people studied in both fishing villages of Rhino Camp and Obongi were excreting from 100 to ³500 Schistosoma mansonieggs per gram (epg). 253 18.5% did not have Schistosoma mansonieggs in their faeces. The influence of socioeconomic factors on infections in the study population was high among poorer illiterates who have frequent water contacts activities with River Nile.

The sonomorphological abnormalities of periportal thickening (PT) due to Schistosoma mansoni were performed using ultrasound..664 patients were found to have various stages of (PT stages 0, I, II and III). A total of 703 (51.4%) patients did not have any periportal thickening (PT 0) in their livers despite the fact that 450 (32.9%) of them had Schistosoma. mansonieggs in their faeces. The gravities of schistosomiasis in the two villages were similar showing greater morbidity in the younger adults.

Key words:epidemiology; sonomophological; morbidity; Schistosoma mansoni;infection; northern Uganda.
African Health Sciences 2002; 2(3): 99-106