Urinary schistosomiasis contracted from an irrigation pool in Ramah, the southern Jordan Valley, Jordan

Autochthonous cases of urinary schistosomiasis are reported for the second time in Jordan. Eight Jordanian juveniles (seven males and one female) ranging in age from 10 to 15 years were diagnosed in 1995 as having the disease. Urine examination using the membrane filtration technique showed varying intensities of infection. The patients were treated with praziquantel and a follow-up showed the passage of dead eggs in the urine of five patients one month after treatment. All had egg-negative urine three months post-treatment. Epidemiologic investigation showed that the patients did not leave Jordan and that the seven males swam frequently in 1994 in an irrigation pool present in a farm at Ramah, in the southern Jordan Valley. The female patient had frequent contact with the pool water since she often went to the farm to obtain water for domestic animals. Bulinus truncatus snails were found in the pool and in pools on other farms in the area. Two hundred snails collected from the site did not shed cercariae after six months of observation. Several foreign workers in the area were found infected with Schistosoma haematobium, suggesting they were the source of infection.