What is Schistosoma haematobium?

Schistosoma haematobium:

1. Schistosoma haematobium is a urinary blood fluke.
2. It is a digenetic trematode belonging to group of blood flukes (Schistosoma).
3. It infects the urinary tract and causes urinary schistosomiasis leading to bladder cancer.

Structure:

1. Male is about 15mm long and the female is about 20 mm long.
2. Eggs are oval having transparent yellow membrane with a protrusion in the form of a spine.

Life cycle:

1. Schistosoma haematobium completes it's lifecycle in humans as definitive host, amd snails as intermediate host.
2. It releases it's eggs in urinary tract and excrete through urine.

Pathology:

Causes urinary bladder cancer which xan further be complicated by bacterial infection and kidney failure

Treatment:

Drug used is praziquantel.