Widespread use of pesticides, including the world’s most used herbicide, glyphosate, can speed the transmission of the debilitating disease schistosomiasis (snail fever), while also upsetting the ecological balances in aquatic environments that prevent infections, a new study led by researchers at the University of California, Berkeley has found.
Schistosomiasis (also known as Snail Fever and Bilharzia) is a disease of poverty that leads to chronic ill-health, according to the World Health Organization. Infection is acquired when people come into contact with fresh water infested with the larval forms (cercariae) of parasitic blood flukes, known as schistosomes. The microscopic adult worms live in the veins draining the urinary tract and intestines. Most of the eggs they lay are trapped in the tissues and the body’s reaction to them can cause massive damage.
Schistosomiasis affects almost 240 million people worldwide, and more than 700 million people live in endemic areas. The infection is prevalent in tropical and sub-tropical areas, in poor communities without potable water and adequate sanitation.
Hellbound and Down 