Clinical and laboratorial evaluation of urinary schistosomiasis in Brazilians after staying in Mozambique

Abstract

We examined 87 Brazilian individuals of a group of 132 that, on July and November 1994, participated in a peace mission in Mozambique. They served in an endemic area for haematobic schistosomiasis, where they swum in Licungo river during leisure time. Their arithmetic mean age was 31 year and all of them were male. Their urine test showed that 30 (34.5%) eliminated S. haematobium eggs and 55 (63.2%) presented positive serology by the enzime-linked immunoelectrotransfer blot test with purified microsomal antigen of S. haematobium adult worms. Eosinophilia was found in 30 (34.5%), haematuria in 26 (29.9%), dysuria in 32 (36.8%) and lombar pain in 36 (41.4%). All of those that eliminated eggs through urine had positive serology. Among the 25 patients with positive serology and without S. haematobium eggs in the urine test, 13 were symptomatic and 12 assymptomatic. The treatment with praziquantel for the 30 patients, with urine positive to S. haematobium eggs, presented 70% of parasitological cure. Key-words: Schistosomiasis. Enzyme-linked immunoelectrotransfer blot assay. Brazilians. Mozambique. The habitat of S. haematobium is the urinary tract where the host response to the eggs retained in the tissues results in lesions and hematuria. RESUMOUrinary schistosomiasis is found in 53 countries on the African continent and in the Middle East 33 34 ; however, no autochthonous case has been reported in Brazil thus far. A number of the 132 Brazilian military and ex-military servicemen, who served 4 months in Mozambique (Africa) on a United Nations peace mission in 1994 and had swum in the Licungo River, Zambezia province, during their leisure time, were infected with Schistosoma haematobium. The enzyme-linked immunoelectrotransfer blot assay (EITB)