Schistosoma+Haematobium

= = = Schistosoma haematobium = Kingdom: Animalia Phylum: Platyhelminthes Class: Trematoda Subclass: Digenea Order: Strigeidida Genus: Schistosoma Species: S. haematobium //**Schistosoma haematobium**// is an important digenetic trematode usually found in the Middle East, India, Portugal and Africa. It is a major agent of schistosomiasis; more specifically, it is associated with urinary schistosomiasis. Schistosomes cause the most significant infection of humans by flatworms, schistosomiasis which is considered by the World Health Organization as second in importance only to malaria, with hundreds of millions infected worldwide



Schistosomiasis:
 * also called bilharzia, bilharziosis or snail fever
 * parasitic disease caused by several species of fluke of the genus //Schistosoma //
 * most commonly found in Asia, Africa, and South America, especially in areas where the water contains numerous freshwater snails
 * symptoms include abdominal pain, coughing, diarrhea, a high white blood cell count, fever, fatigue, genital sores, and the enlargement of the liver and spleen


 * Life Cycle:**

In Humans
 * 1) The free swimming infective larval cercariae burrow into human skin when it comes into contact with contaminated water.
 * 2) The cercariae enter the blood stream of the host where they travel to the liver to mature in to adult flukes. (In order to avoid detection by the immune system inside the host, the adults have the ability to coat themselves with host antigens)
 * 3) After a period of about three weeks the young flukes migrate to the bladder to copulate(to engage in sexual intercourse).
 * 4) The female fluke lays as many as 3,000 eggs per day eggs which migrate to the lumen of the urinary bladder and ureters.
 * 5) The eggs are eliminated from the host and possibly into the water supply.

In Snails
 * 1) In the fresh water, the eggs hatch forming free swimming miracardiae which penetrate into the intermediate snail host Bulinus truncatus.
 * 2) Inside the snail, the miracardium sheds it epithelium and develops into a mother sporocyst.
 * 3) After two weeks the mother begins forming daughter sporocysts.
 * 4) Four weeks after the initial penetration of the miracardium into the snail furcocercous cercariae begin to be released.
 * 5) The cercariae cycle from the top of the water to the bottom for three days in the search for a human host.
 * 6) Within half an hour the cercariae enter the host epithelium tissue.

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