Suprainiac Fossa a fairly-anthropological and somewhat-scientific look at humans and the nearly-human

As if there weren’t enough concerning tropical diseases and parasites in Africa, another is coming to attention…. “Bilharzia” – or schistosomiasis.

200 million people are estimated to be infected worldwide, 90% of whom are in Africa. (Estimates vary widely between sources – and the deaths from schistosomiasis are nearly impossible to determine, as it can be the critical complication that takes the life of patients infected with a variety of other disease, from TB to HIV.)

It’s hardly new – the disease has been known since antiquity. It’s even been referred to as “from a global public health perspective… the most important water-based disease”[4. Utzinger, J. et al., (2009) Schistosomiasis and neglected tropical diseases: towards integrated and sustainable control and a word of caution. Parasitology, 136(13), pp.1859-74. ]

Despite new information that the… Continue reading