Snail Fever

Research Paper: Snail Fever

Have you ever felt digusted to walk in a dirty reviver bare foot? Well you should be because there are many parasites lurking in the water such as the fresh water snail. They don't seem dangerous but their larvas are because worms live on them. When people are exposed to dirty water infested with this parasite the larva then can penetrate your skin and begin its cycle of life in your blood stream. This sickness is publicly known as snail fever.

There are three types of worms that live on the larva of the fresh water snails. When a larva penetrates you skin it either bring along one of the following worms: Schistosoma haematobium, S. japonicum, and S. mansoni -- which cause snail fever. Once they enter your blood stream you are now infected. The larva start feasteing on your blood cells. After a few days it transform to another stage which ables it to travel to our body. The most common areas these worms travel to are your liver and intestine. There they develop to adult worms and lay eggs. As long as the worms are there they keep producing eggs of these parasites.

The parasite then reproduces by a complex process. The eggs are then sent to your urinary system to which it is urinated out side of the body. When the eggs are outside they try to re effect snails to start over the cycle. Snails are the carriers of the parasite.

One of the most dangerous worms to be infected by is the adult schistosome worms because it creates very serious tissue damage inside the human body. Other Schistosome species which cannot live inside of man still cause a skin condition known as swimmer's itch. Schistosomiasis is also called "bilharzia" after the 19th-century German physician Theodor Bilharz (1825-1862).The term "schistosomiasis" came from Greek roots -- "schisto-", split or cleaved + "soma", body = cleft body. The cleft body refers