Background: In view of the massive rural-to-urban migration in Nigeria, investigations on transmission of urinary schistosomiasis were carried out in ur-ban and semi-urban communities in Nike Lake area of Enugu State, Nigeria.
Methods: Urine samples of school children were tested for micro-haematuria using reagent strips followed by microscopic examination for Schistosoma haematobium eggs. Water contact sites were also identified and sam-pled for snails.
Results: The overall prevalence of S. haematobium eggs in school children was 4.64%. The mean intensity of infection was 1.14 + 0.41 eggs/10ml urine. Males had insignificantly higher prevalence and intensity of S. haematobium infec-tion than females. The youngest age group (4-7 years) had no infection. The prevalence of micro-haematuria (6.2%) was higher than that of microscopy, and this correlated positively with prevalence (r=0.65, P < 0.01) and intensity (r=0.50, P < 0.01) of the infection. Potential intermediate host of human shistosome collected were: Bulinus globosus, B. senegalensis and Biomphalaria pfeifferi. However, only B. globosus shed cercariae of S. haematobium, with a snail infection rate of 0.73%. Transmission was in the dry season coinciding with the drying of wells.
Conclusion: The results revealed that urinary schistosomiasis is prevalent, and that B. globosus and not B. truncatus as previously reported is the main inter-mediate host of urinary schistosomiasis in this part of Enugu State.