n an infestation with or a resulting infection caused by a parasite of the genus Schistosoma; common in the tropics and Far East; symptoms depend on the part of the body infected
The chlorine, which seemed useless, can go into making sodium pentachlorophenatea chemical that kills the river-borne parasites causing bilharziasis, a disease chronic in .
Schistosomiasis, bilharziasis, snail feverby whatever name, the debilitating and often fatal illness afflicts more than 150 million people in Africa, Latin America and Asia.
The squishy little parasites are less than an inch long, but they cause a globe-girdling disease variously known as schistosomiasis, bilharziasis, or simply snail fever.