Schistosomiasis: population requiring preventive chemotherapy and number of people treated in 2010

Overview

Schistosomiasis remains a public health problem in several parts of the world, particularly in Africa, with ≥200 million people infected in 2009. Data on treatment are collected to measure the progress being made towards achieving the target set by World Health Assembly Resolution 54.19, adopted in 2001, which aims to reach ≥75% all school-aged children who are at risk of morbidity from schistosomiasis and soil-transmitted helminthiasis. The major constraint to controlling the disease continues to be limited access to praziquantel. However, during the past several years progress has been made in scaling up schistosomiasis treatment.

This report presents data on the number of people treated for schistosomiasis in 2009. The distribution of the disease is shown in Map 1. Reporting to WHO remains sporadic. As new initiatives to control neglected tropical diseases are being implemented, more countries are introducing schistosomiasis-control programmes in sub-Saharan Africa. In non-endemic countries, immigrants and tourists are treated for schistosomiasis, but these cases are not reported to WHO.