Discussion

Urinary schistosomiasis infection is one of the major public health problem facing developing countries with school age children at greater risk. Previous studies showed that Ogbese-Ekiti is endemic for urinary schistosomiasis. The impact of chemotherapy was evaluated using praziquantel (40mg/kg body weight) on S. heamatobium among school pupils in Ogbese-Ekiti, Ekiti State, Nigeria. Urine samples were collected between the hours of 7.00am and 10.00am. The number of eggs in 10ml of each urine sample was calculated from the mean of two counts. At baseline, one hundred and seventy two (172) pupils were screened for eggs of the S. heamatobium out of which 75.6% were positive with high egg intensity ranging between 40780 eggs/10ml of urine. Out of the one hundred and seventy two screened, thirty subjects with high egg intensity (440-780 eggs/10ml of urine) were treated with praziquantel in January 2009. After 10 days post treatment, the urine samples of the thirty subjects were negative for S. heamatobium. The subjects were monitored monthly for re-infection for seven consecutive months (February – August). Re-infection was first noticed in May.