The evolving schistosomiasis agenda 2017-2020 in Egypt: Moving from control toward final elimination

Abstract

Schistosomiasis is one of the most important diseases of humans in tropical and subtropical parts Of the world ,it is a chronic disease, it comes after malaria in socioeconomic and public health importance among parasitic diseases. It is estimated that about 779 million people are at risk of infection, about 240 million are actually infected, of whom 120 million are symptomatic and 20 million have serious consequences(WHO, 2014) . This infection has been recorded in Egypt from early pharaonic times (3200 B.C.) by the demonstration of Schistosome eggs and circulating Schistosome antigens in mummies. After the discovery of the parasite’s life cycle in1915, Egypt started to fight against the disease by implementing pilot projects using either snail control or chemotherapy. In Egypt, between 1989 and 1996, about 2.5 million schistosomiasis cases were diagnosed and treated, mentioning that the prevalence of schistosomiasis was close to 40% in 1983 at the national level. The Ministry of Health and Population in Egypt has announced the start of a campaign to confirm the final elimination of schistosomiasis by 2020, after the ministry has achieved success in reducing the prevalence of schistosomiasis to about 0.2% by the end of 2016.