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More than 5 million South Africans infected with bilharzia

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Studies show that 5 million South Africans are infected with bilharzia, 2 million of whom are women.

Bilharzia is a disease spread by parasites that live in fresh water. An NGO called Tackling Infections to Benefit Africa South Africa (tibaSA) and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, have held an outreach event at Ingwavuma, northern KwaZulu-Natal.

Research leader Moses Chimbari says cases of Bilharzia are widespread in the province.

Chimbari says they began research work in the Ingwavuma area in 2014.

“We did not find as many children as we had anticipated based on what is reported elsewhere. We believe that what we have got is probably a temporary thing and therefore, we should not be complacent. It’s mainly because of the droughts in the past 3-4 years we have been working in, which means the water bodies dried up and therefore, transmission was not taking place.”

Chimbari says research shows that the disease has great impact on physical and mental ability of children younger than five years of age.

“We found that generally with our small sample, currently, the children who were infected were worse off than children who were not infected similarly checking their language articulation and academic ability. We also found that the children affected are worse off than the non-infected. However, these differences are not statistically significant.”

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