What does bilharzia mean?
Bilharzia is a chronic parasitic disease caused by flatworms known as blood flukes of the genus Schistosoma, whose larvae are released into freshwater by infected aquatic snails. People become infected when the larvae penetrate the skin during bathing, washing, farming, or swimming in contaminated water. Inside the body, the adult worms settle in the blood vessels around the intestines or bladder, and their eggs cause inflammation and progressive damage to organs over time. Symptoms may include abdominal pain, diarrhea, blood in the urine or stool, fatigue, and anemia, though mild infections can go unnoticed for years. The disease, also called schistosomiasis or snail fever, affects millions of people across Africa, the Middle East, South America, and parts of Asia, making it one of the world's most widespread parasitic illnesses. Fortunately, it can be treated effectively and inexpensively with the drug praziquantel. The word honors Theodor Bilharz, the German physician who first identified the parasite.
nounA chronic tropical disease of humans caused by parasitic flatworms (blood flukes) of the genus Schistosoma, which live in the blood vessels and damage the intestines, liver, bladder, and other organs. Also known as snail fever, it is contracted through contact with freshwater contaminated by larval parasites released from infected snails.
- A chronic tropical disease caused by parasitic blood flukes of the genus Schistosoma, acquired from contaminated freshwater and affecting the intestines, urinary tract, liver, and other organs.
"After years of wading in the irrigation canals, many villagers had developed symptoms of bilharzia."
"Health workers screened the children for bilharzia after an outbreak was traced to the village pond."
"The drug praziquantel has made bilharzia both treatable and inexpensive to cure."
Usually treated as a mass noun referring to the disease in general; the plural appears mainly when counting distinct cases, types, or infections.
"Both intestinal and urinary bilharzias are endemic to the region."
Bilharzia is named after Theodor Bilharz, the German physician who discovered its parasitic worms in Egyptian patients in the 1850s — one of the few major diseases named after a person.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of bilharzia
Bilharzia derives from the name of Theodor Bilharz (1825–1862), a German physician working in Cairo who discovered the parasitic worms responsible for the disease during autopsies of Egyptian patients in the early 1850s. His colleague, the anatomist Wilhelm Griesinger, proposed naming the genus after him, and the disease came to be called bilharzia or bilharziasis in his honor. The term entered English medical vocabulary in the latter half of the nineteenth century and remains in common use alongside the more technical name schistosomiasis.
How bilharzia is actually used
The term is used in medicine and public health, and is more common in British English and in African and Middle Eastern contexts; American medical writing tends to prefer "schistosomiasis." It functions as a mass noun, though plural forms occasionally appear when referring to multiple infections or cases.