urinary schistosomiasis in urban and semi-urban communities in south-eastern nigeria.

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.