Govt campaigns to prevent bilharzia

The Swazi health ministry has launched a nationwide bilharzia testing, public awareness and prevention campaign, advising people to avoid tainted streams. Bilharzia is caused by parasitic worms that grow and develop in certain kinds of snails. "The larva of the parasitic fluke penetrates the skin of people wading or bathing in infested canals, and people exposed are usually unaware they are infected until there is damage to the body," explained the ministry's health assistant, Sammy Tsabedze. "My child was infected, and her stomach swelled up so, she looked like a pregnant woman," a mother testifies in a public awareness advertisement. "Kids are mostly affected because they love to swim in streams, and they are sent by their families to fetch water. Others who are at risk are women who wash laundry in streams," said Tsabedze. Once the parasite settles in the bladder or intestines, it attacks organs such as the kidneys, liver, lungs, central nervous system and circulatory system. A common sign of infection is passing blood during urination or defecation. Armed with information indicating that most Swazis are unaware of having bilharzia when they visit a clinic complaining about an affected organ, the health ministry is mounting a radio campaign urging people to seek help if they detect blood in their urine or stools. In a programme to be conducted nationwide, urine tests taken at the Ebulandzeni Community School in the northern Hhohho region found the entire student body, except for two children, infected with the bilharzia parasite. The public awareness campaign has health assistants advising rural residents to bottle snails from the water sources they use and bring them to clinics for parasitic testing. Flyers distributed to schools urge: "Make your own survey!" Children in particular are urged not to use streams as toilets, as people infected with bilharzia can pass on the parasite via bodily waste. The chemical spraying of waterways to counter the parasite has been suspended, after objections from the Swaziland Environmental Authority when fish began to die from the poison and people were consuming the contaminated fish.