Schistosomiasis haematobium and the mortality occurring in an endemic community at Bujashi, Tanzania.

A population of 4516 inhabitants of an area endemic for schistosomiasis haematobium at Bujashi, Tanzania, was investigated in 1983 seven years after a baseline study for a pilot control project to determine the disease mortality risk. The distribution of the 238 deaths occurring in the population, when analysed by the Mantel Haenszel test, showed similar age and sex specific mortality rates among the 2309 non-cases and 2109 cases found excreting schistosome eggs at the baseline urine examinations. Furthermore, the respective follow up 36 and 57 cases with and without urological sequelae on the baseline excretion urograms, also showed similar age adjusted mortality rates as did the 1663 and 446 metrifonate treated and untreated cases respectively. The findings suggested, therefore, that neither the disease nor its treatment affected the mortality occurring in the population.