Abstract:
The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence of urinary
schistosomiasis among school children attending the primary school of
Taibat Alahamda village, Khartoum North, Sudan. According to some
previous reports and the studies of the Federal Ministry of Health, Taibat
Alahamda was considered to be an endemic area of schistosomiasis in
Khartoum North locality. Therefore, Taibat Alahamda primary school for
boys was selected for this study.
The first clinical laboratory sign to be investigated was to identify
school children suffering from haematiuria in order to be diagnosed and
treated. Some essential chemical changes observed in the urine collected
from the pupils were thoroughly examined which might lead to the
possible diagnosis of urinary schistosomiasis among the school children.
Eight hundred thirty eight (838) pupils were examined, 47 were found to
be infected with Schistosoma haematobium. This constituted a prevalence
rate of 5.6%.
The study also revealed that the age of the pupils examined was a
critical factor in contracting the disease, as most of the children infected
with S.haematobium were above 10 years of age. When biochemical
analysis was performed for all urine samples collected, protein level was
shown to be an important indicator for infection with S.haematobium.
The results showed that 95.75% of positive cases were infected with
S.haematobium. However, only around 4.25% cases were co-infected
with both S.haematobium and S.mansoni and not a single case was
infected with S. mansoni alone.
Significant amount of red blood cells and pus cells were detected in
the urine samples examined. Also, microscopic examination of urine
samples revealed that 5.48% of infected pupils were suffering from
pyuria, while 6.68% had haematouria.
Other biochemical parameters of urine investigated, such as glucose,
ketone bodies, urobilinogin and bile pigments, were shown to be of no
clinical significance .This was possibly, due to the fact that such
parameters were not directly related to the disease and, consequently,
were not affected by the pathogenesis of S.haematobium.
When some infected children were treated, praziquantel was shown
to be the drug of choice. This was observed by the fact that most of the
treated pupils 70.2% responded well to the oral single dose of
praziquantel. However, when a second dose of the drug was administered
one month later, 100% of the pupils responded to the treatment.
Interestingly, children with mixed infection of S.haematobium and
S.mansoni, did not respond at all to the first dose, and only weakly to the
double doses of the drug, a matter that should be thoroughly investigated
in the future.
