Schistosomiasis japonica remains a public health concern in many areas of the Philippines. Adequate and updated information is essential to enhance policy and service delivery toward control and elimination. Despite the efforts on schistosomiasis control in the Philippines, some challenges remain in these dimensions. An integrated surveillance system is recommended to determine the prevalence of infection in humans, animal reservoirs, and snail intermediate hosts, allowing the identification of high-priority areas for targeted interventions. This will entail the enhancement of laboratory diagnosis capacity through the use of more sensitive techniques, complemented by capacity building of concerned human and animal health professionals. Given the zoonotic nature of schistosomiasis japonica, adopting the One Health approach is essential to influence policies and interventions that may accelerate control and elimination. This can be achieved through the attainment of mass drug administration coverage targets and intensified case finding and management, robust implementation and integration of veterinary public health activities, the conduct of snail control measures, provision of safe water, sanitation, and hygiene services, and health promotion and education into the national schistosomiasis control and elimination program. This review aimed to describe the status of schistosomiasis japonica control in the Philippines in the context of human health, animal health, vector ecology and management, environmental health, and sociocultural dimensions.
Exposure of living organisms to heavy metals can lead to bioaccumulation and can have some detrimental health effects. This study identified the species of liver flukes present in the liver tissues of water buffaloes, determined the concentration and bioconcentration factor of cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc present in both the liver tissues and liver flukes using atomic absorption spectrophotometry. Of the 1,329 liver flukes extracted from the 14 livers, Fasciola gigantica (F. gigantica) was the only species present in the collected liver tissues. The median heavy metal concentrations (µg/g) in the liver tissues were 0.93, 9.13, 4.75, and 48.95 for cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc, respectively. F. gigantica had median heavy metal concentrations (µg/g) of 3. 32, 72.26, 20.82, and 159.37 for cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc, respectively. Both the liver tissues and F. gigantica were identified to contain varying concentrations of these heavy metals (p<0.05). The presence of these heavy metals in both the liver tissues and F. gigantica suggests heavy metal contamination of the areas where the carabaos graze. The bioconcentration factors for cadmium, copper, lead, and zinc were greater than 1.0 indicating that liver flukes are good bioaccumulators and bioindicators of environmental pollution.
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