Schistosomiasis reaches Europe
International audience; An outbreak of urogenital schistosomiasis has been detected in Europe, with patients affected in France,1,2 Germany,1,2 and Italy. The infection originated in Corsica, in a river north of Porto-Vecchio, a popular tourist destination (figure). The introduction of schistosomiasis is believed to be associated with infected people arriving from a region endemic for the exclusively African parasite, Schistosoma haematobium and disseminating parasite eggs through their urine into snail breeding sites along the river.
Ecologie de la santé
Quand l'écologie pose son diagnostic. L'actualité nous le rappelle sans cesse : les maladies comme le paludisme, le Sida, ébola ou zika sont difficiles à combattre, et les maladies chroniques de type cancer, diabète ou maladies cardio-vasculaires toujours plus meurtrières. Pour la première fois de son histoire, l'humanité voit même son espérance de vie diminuer. Pour comprendre les raisons de cette crise sanitaire, l'écologie scientifique pose un autre regard sur la santé qui prend en considération les transformations de l'environnement et l'évolution de nos modes de vie. Cette nouvelle approche évolutive et écologique des problèmes de santé tente d'élucider les mécanismes en jeu dans la tr…
Outbreak of urogenital schistosomiasis in Corsica (France): an epidemiological case study
Summary Background Schistosomiasis is a snail-borne parasitic disease endemic in several tropical and subtropical countries. However, in the summer of 2013, an unexpected outbreak of urogenital schistosomiasis occurred in Corsica, with more than 120 local people or tourists infected. We used a multidisciplinary approach to investigate the epidemiology of urogenital schistosomiasis in Corsica, aiming to elucidate the origin of the outbreak. Methods We did parasitological and malacological surveys at nine potential sites of infection. With the snails found, we carried out snail–parasite compatibility experiments by exposing snails to schistosome larvae recovered from the urine of a locally in…