STUDIES ON THE USE OF SKIN TEST IN THE DETECTION OF BILHARZIASIS

Abstract

Skin test trials with standards S. mansoni antigen have been undertaken inn Iran to determine the reliability of this method for the misdiagnosis of urinary bilharziasis and the factors which interfere with the results obtained, such as the presence of animal schistosomes and human infection with intestinal helminthiasis.Five groups of people, namely, known infected caws of urinary bilharziasis, treated cases, negative cases from non- endemic area and students with different intestinal helminths, were included in these studies. A total of 234 persons were examined during this trial. The results obtained indicate that, while the difference observed between known positive and negative cases is highly significant, the difference between positive cases and ases treated a year previously is not significant. When the difference between positive cases and persons exposed to S. bovis is significant, the difference between the latter group and negative cases is not significant.