Bilharziasis of the central nervous system in human beings and experimental animals.

Abstract

The investigator studied schistosomiasis of central nervous system in human cadavers and hamsters. He found out that 13.3% of the spinal cords of the human cadavers were infected by Schistosoma ova. The lesion was confined to the lumbosacral region of the cord in cases of advanced bilharziasis. The cords of infected Hamsters showed only diffuse cell infilterate without ova. The possible pathways of ova from the final habitats of the parasites to the cord are pelvivertebral and portovertebral connections as shown from the discovered pathological changes in the blood vessels of these areas.