London's Natural History Museum Battles Schistosomiasis in Africa

Schistosomiasis is one of the most widespread diseases in the world, with an estimated 200 million people infected across the world. It is a chronic and debilitating disease caused by parasitic worms called schistosomes. The World Health Organization wants to have Schistosomiasis under control by 2020 and one of Sterlitech's customers, the Natural History Museumin London, is tackling the disease head on. The Natural History Museum, in partnership with other organizations including the Zanzibar Ministry of Health, is helping with the WHO's initiative with a special project called the Zanzibar Elimination of Schistosomiasis Transmission (ZEST). ZEST's goal is to reduce the number of new cases of schistosomiasis using a three-pronged approach to eliminate the worms that cause the disease:

• Treatment of infected people to kill the adult schistosome worms.
• Controlling the population of snails that host the parasite
• Preventing the eggs from entering the water supply by changing people's behavior.

The Natural History Museum hopes that once their approach has proven itself, that it will be used a the model to eliminate the disease throughout the rest of world. You can learn more about the Natural History Museum, schistosomiasis and the ZEST project from their blog here. Sterlitech also has additional information on Schistosomiasis in a white paper that we published last year.  We also offer schistosome testing kits (which are used by Natural History Museum) on our website.