In a science lab in Holland , volunteers are signing up to be taint with a parasitic worm – and there is a chance they might not be cured of it .
The experimentation is part of research to arise new treatment for the parasitic louse that causes the disease bilharzia , reportsScience . It is stimulate by up to five dissimilar rip flukes that belong to the genusSchistosoma , and is specially common in poor and rural communities .
The disease causes a motley of symptoms , including abdominal pain , diarrhoea , enlarged liver , hypertension , and parentage in one ’s stool and urine . The 17 hoi polloi that have signalize up so far will be infected with manlike worms so that they can not lie in eggs – the main cause of the disease ’s symptoms – but some doctors are interested that there is no guarantee that the patients will be bring around of the disease once the experimentation is over .
The team , which will bear out the subject field at Leiden University Medical Center , trust that the research will aid in the development of a vaccine to cover the disease . At present there is only one drug that works , but even that is inadequate . By doing experiments in the laboratory , the team hope to get better results than what could be achieved in the line of business .
bilharzia – also known variously as snail fever and bilharzia – is a neglected disease that is prevalent in tropical countries . Most commonly found in Africa , but also present in both Asia and South America , it is conceive that up to 700 million the great unwashed in 70 unlike countries are at risk of being infect by the parasite .
The parasite gets into hoi polloi by thrust their skin andentering their circulative system , where they swim around until they mature and pair , often channelize towards the liver . At this level , the female lay their eggs , which make it into either the bowel or bladder . When an septic person then goes to the toilet in freshwater , the eggs are excreted and hatching . These then find their way into freshwater snails and shellfish , where they develop further before being free to recover another human innkeeper .
Because of this trust on fresh water molluscs , the leech mainly taint tiddler who are likely to trifle in septic water , as well as fishermen and granger who are frequently in rivers and lake .
It is incisively because the parasite largely infect misfortunate children and fishermen in developing countries that the disease is neglected . It is hop that this experiment will facilitate to show that man can be safely infected with the worm in an data-based circumstance , which will then lead to more vaccines that can be tested .
[ H / T : Science Magazine ]
