What Can Individuals Do To Protect Themselves From Snail Fever?

Check with health officers in your area to see if local waters are infested with harmful parasites. In Africa, relatively few stream are free from schistosomes. For home use, well water is best. If it is necessary to take water from a stream, a fast-moving one is safer, since the delicate flukes are easily killed in a rapid current. Boil drinking water for at least fifteen minutes. Storing water in tubs for forty-eight hours will destroy any schistosomes therein. But care should be exercised in fetching the water. If exposed to the parasite, quickly drying off briskly with a towel will help to prevent infection.

Unless one is certain that "schisto" is not present, do not bathe or wash in a stream. This is a factor to consider, too, in selecting baptism sites. The parasite does not survive in salt water, thus the ocean is free of this pest. Steps should be taken to keep one's rice fields or canals from contamination. Wear rubber boots when fishing or otherwise wading in strange waters. Use care, however, in removing them.

If a person suspects that he has contracted "schisto," it is wise to consult a doctor. It is easier to treat, and less damage is done to the body, if treated soon. The standard treatment for years has been the giving of antimonial drugs by injections over a period of days, a painful and somewhat dangerous process. All the more reason to avoid this disease. Some significant advancements have been made in improved methods of eliminating the worms from the body, but very little can be done to repair the serious damage done to the body organs in the chronic stage. Moreover, it does little good to divest the body of worms if the victim goes right back into infested waters to become infected with "schisto" again.

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