Saturday 8 December 2007

Schistosoma Mansoni

We currently have some crew-mates with a laboratory-confirmed parasite infection called Schistosoma Mansoni, a parasite quite common in subsaharan Africa. These worm-like parasites are found in fresh water, where they penetrate the skin and then the larvae migrate to different organs of the body, become adult worms and can cause many symptoms which if left untreated can eventually cause organ failure and paralysis or death. There is high evidence that our crew-mates picked up these parasites whilst swimming in Bong Mines Lake in Liberia...which is precisly what we did in August. We now have to undergo a treatment of anti-parasite drugs to ensure we don't develop the symptoms and get sick. Olly

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