Schistosomiasis in the Sélingué dam area: the integrated approach

A baseline survey was done in 1980 in the Sélingué dam area, before the dam was completed, for the surveillance of man-man diseases. Five years later, a follow-up survey was done to measure the impact of the dam on prevalence and intensity of schistosomiasis, by comparing epidemiological and demographic characteristics of different population groups in the area. It was found that fishermen who had migrated to the area after the dam was built, had the highest prevalence rate of S. haematobium infection (57.9%), compared to that of resettled villages (20.9%) and non-resettled villages (11.6%). Even though the intensity is not very high, the actual prevalence is higher than at the time of the baseline survey (3.2%). The paper discusses the difficult issue of preventing the transmission of schistosomiasis by provision of adequate water supplies, continuous health education and chemotherapy, through basic health services.