(Original source: Abdul-Aziz Oudha, Posted in: Front Page, 2/24/08 - Web: www.yobserver.com/front-page/10013772.html)

3 million Yemenis infected with Bilharzia.

The World Health Organization’s (WHO) representative in Yemen, Ghulam R. Popal, said that there are three million Yemenis infected with Bilharzia, inflicting human and economic losses on the country.

Rabani added that twenty percent of the patients are suffering serious developments that are likely to result in death.

In a Sana’a workshop held last Wednesday in preparation for a Bilharzia eradication campaign that will be held on March 11th, Rabani stated that the world had gotten rid of Bilharzia, with Yemen and Sudan being the only countries in the Middle East which are still suffering from the disease, while other less developed countries have managed to eradicate it.

Rabani pointed to countries such as Egypt and Afghanistan, places where the Bilharzia parasite was at one time more prevalent than in Yemen, and noted that they managed to get rid of the disease through awareness campaigns.

Tunisian Riadh Bin Ismail, the WHO regional expert said, “The Bilharzia drug, called ‘brazicontel’ has been approved by the WHO and has no side effects if taken properly.” He urged parents in the targeted areas to give their children a meal before going to school and taking the drug. Ismail also urged the parents of the children who do not go to school to take advantage of this chance and give their children the drug in order to protect them from this disease which is a major cause of liver failure.

This eradication campaign changes the previous mechanism of shell collection and preventing children from swimming in pools, which proved to be more expensive, to one of giving the drug to children in the targeted age group of six through eighteen years. This age group is responsible for ninety percent of the disease’s spread. Bilharzia treatment and prevention costs in Yemen come to about $80 million each year.

Dr. Abdulhakim al-Kahlani, General Epidemics Observatory Manager in the Health Ministry, said during his speech that this campaign is an important factor in breaking the Bilharzia life cycle because there will eventually be no infected persons who can contaminate stagnant water with the parasite.

The Ministry Loans’ Unit Manager, Faozia Hamid Ja’far, said that parents need to be aware of the fact that the drug’s transport cost is higher than the drug itself, and that the awareness of people living in the infested areas should be promoted so that they will buy this cheap drug to contribute to decreasing the cost.

Dr. Abdullah Oshaish, Bilharzia combat manager, explained that collective curing targets two million of children at the school age. Thirty one percent of these do not go to school, pointing out that this year’s campaign aims at giving the drug to children living in 36 districts, spreading over Taiz, Haja, al-Dhalie, al-Mahwait, Abian and Dhamar.

More than forty media people joined this campaign, organized by the Sana’a unit of the World Health Organization.