Clinical Aspects of Bilharziasis

The surgical importance of bilharziasis in south africa

“…Not only do I believe that bladder cancer is not uncommon in our hospital, but also that, just as in Egypt (Hashem, 1961;El Mofty, 1962) and in Mozambique (Prates and Gillman, 1959), the evidence is overwhelmingly in favour of a causal relationship. Even in 191 I Ferguson pointed out the high incidence of bilharzia with bladder cancer in Egypt, where in two major hospitals Ibrahim (1947) found more bladder cancers than all other major cancers together.…”

“…It is claimed that worms usually only excite a tissue reaction when dead and that living ova are more harmful than dead ones (El Mofty, 1962). It is agreed that the reaction of granulation followed by fibrosis is more intense with S. mansoni than with S. haematobium.…”