An attempt was made to evaluate the efficacy of the Special Programme for Schistosomiasis Control (PECE) carried out in the state of Paraíba since 1976 by Superintendência das Campanhas de Saúde Pública (SUCAM), Ministry of Health of Brazil. The evaluation was based on five stool examinations done by SUCAM in the school children of the endemic area from 1978 to 1983 and on a clinical and quantitative stool examination performed in 1984 and 1985 in a sample of 9155 persons living in three selected municipalities each one in a different region of the endemic area: Mamanguape, Paraíba and Litoral Sul. The stool examinations performed from 1978 to 1983 showed a drop of S. mansoni infection from 28% to 4.9% in Mamanguape, 20.9% to 5.9% in Paraíba 40.2% to 18.9% in Litoral Sul and 4.9% to 1.4% in Curimataú. At the local level, however, the prevalence of the infection in 1983 was 20% or higher in 36(10.9%) of329 localities evaluated in Mamanguape, 40 (13.6%) of293 in Paraíba and 43(47.2%) of 91 localities of Litoral Sul. The sample of the population submitted to clinical and a quantitative stool examination showed 4.4% passing an average of 123 eggs of S. mansoni per gram of feces in Mamanguape where 12.9% of the positive cases had a palpable liver and none had the hepatosplenic form of the disease. In Paraíba 10.9% of the sample was positive for S. mansoni, with an average of 165.9 eggs per gram offices; 11.7% of the positives had a palpable liver and only one (0.24%) had the hepatosplenic form. In Litoral Sul 24.5% of the sample passed an average of 115.4 eggs per gram of feces, 17.1% of the positives had a palpable liver and 3.6% had the hepatosplenic form of the disease. The authors conclude that the programme was able to reduce the prevalence of the infection and possibly to reduce the morbidity of the disease in Mamanguape, Paraíba and Curimataú, but was less efficient in reducing the prevalence of infection and unable to reduce the morbidity of the disease in the population of Litoral Sul.
Schistosomiasis; Control; Mass treatment; Brasil