 Tanzania - Successful Fight Against Schistosomiasis
One of the first projects the GPHF realized after cooperation with WHO started in 1987 focused on the control of schistosomiasis on Pemba Island.
Parasite trematodes of the genus schistosoma use fresh-water snails as intermediate hosts, thus causing an infectious disease resulting in loss of blood and the destruction of the liver, the spleen and the kidneys and hence in gradual invalidism. Quite often the disease – which affects children in particular – develops into cancer of the bladder. According to estimates, between 200 and 300 million people in more than 50 countries in Africa, the East Asia, the eastern Mediterranean area and South America suffer from schisotsomiasis.
 According to the Head of Medical Affairs of the model project on Pemba Island (Tanzania), Dr. Lorenzo Savioli from WHO, the success achieved during just a few years of work is "remarkable". At the outset of the pilot project, schisotsomiasis was diagnosed in some 53 percent of the 25,000 to 30,000 school children. After treatment with a drug developed in Germany, the incidence rate decreased to 12.9 percentpercent.
In a second phase, some 60 percent of the total of roughly 280,000 islanders underwent two selective treatments, and the total spread of schisotsomiasis was reduced to less than 10 percent, i.e. a decrease of infections by more than 80 percent was achieved. The most important factors were diagnosis and treatment and health-education measures aimed at the population in order to prevent schisotsomiasis.
A particularly important element of these measures was a film on the causes of the disease and prophylaxis; in addition, the highly committed cooperation of local health workers trained by the Head of Medical Affairs helped to overcome the initial reserve of the population against the bilharziosis program and to turn it into a tremendous success.
The government of Zanzibar considers this project a genuine pilot project for combating other tropical diseases (e. g. malaria). The newly created health-services infrastructure on Pemba Island was used and enhanced for this purpose.
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