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Mass Isolation and In Vitro Cultivation of Intramolluscan Stages of the Human Blood Fluke Schistosoma Mansoni
Published on: January 14, 2018
Growing population and ecosystem change increase human schistosomiasis around Lake Malaŵi
Bert Van Bocxlaer1, Christian Albrecht2, Jay R Stauffer3
1Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC 20560, USA; Ghent University, Department of Geology and Soil Science, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium.
Abstract:
Multiple anthropogenic environmental stressors with reinforcing effects to the deterioration of ecosystem stability can obscure links between ecosystem change and the prevalence of infectious diseases. Incomplete understanding may lead to ineffective public health and disease control strategies, as appears to be the case with increased urogenital schistosomiasis in humans around Lake Malaŵi over recent decades. Sedimentation and eutrophication help explain historical changes in intermediate host range and parasite transmission. Hence, control strategies should account for abiotic changes.
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