By involving more local partners, Schistosomiasis Outreach Shirati in the fishing village of Nyamagaro has reached 2,5 times as many beneficiaries as before. The core target demographic for the programme is young fishermen, but data from the previous outreaches showed that exactly this group was underrepresented among the beneficiaries of the programme. A team of students from Groningen, the Netherlands, set out to investigate why, and solve this problem. From talks with fishermen in the village, a number of points for improvement were identified. The outreach location was moved to the harbour, the outreach was announced by flyers in the week leading op the date, but most importantly: local BMU officers (representatives of the fishermen) received education on schistosomiasis and were stimulated to take ownership of this health issue. During the outreach, which involves health education by local NGO Maji Safi Group and mass drug administration by staff from Shirati KMT hospital, we reached 730 beneficiaries, up from 327 last November. Research team student Martijn was quoted: “The turnout was tremendous. I think we could have helped 1000 people, but we ran out of resources.” The project highlights important lessons to improve the programme, and involvement of the BMU officers will be a key aspect of future outreaches, including Kibuyi next July.

Schistosomiasis is a parasitic disease contracted from bodies of freshwater. Infection occurs when larval forms of the parasite – released by freshwater snails – penetrate the skin during immersion in infested waters. A few weeks after being infected, patients exhibit symptoms including itching of the skin, fever, diarrhoea and general malaise. Frequent repeated exposure over multiple years leads to severe tissue damage. The S. mansoni subtype of schistosomiasis- the endemic variant in Lake Victoria – typically present with haemoptysis as a result of liver cirrhosis and portal hypertension. Read more about it on the project page.