Dangers in our water – Fighting the scourge of bilharzia

Abstract

Water and health Dangers in our water – Fighting the scourge of bilharzia When schistosomiasis – commonly known as bilharzia after its discoverer, Dr Theodor Bilharz – first came to the attention of South Africa’s medical professionals, it was thought to affect mainly boys. After initially being recorded in 1863 in Port Elizabeth, numerous case reports until the turn of the century (when the disease disappeared from the south-eastern Cape) indicated that it was primarily boys between the ages of 3 and 16 who were infected with the parasitic blood fluke Schistosoma haematobium – a species of trematode flatworm – after swimming in local waterbodies. The most common symptom was haematuria, the medical term for blood in the urine, but colloquially referred to as ‘redwater’ at the time. This often stopped by the age of 20 because men rarely swam, reducing the chance of further infection, although it was recognised even then that the parasite probably persisted in the body. Girls and women were thought to be seldom affected because their contact with waterbodies was more limited.

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