Recent content by patswana

The mature worms find a mate of the opposite sex and live happily releasing many eggs into your stool or urine. The excreted eggs do need the snails to become infectious to humans. Those mature worms live for maybe 5 - 10 years. Damage (i.e. scarring) can be done during that time. There is...

Hello - just saw this thread for the first time so apologies about the delay. Steroids are not indicated in the treatment of schisto - I have never ever used them for this infection. As someone pointed out, they are used with praziquantel in the treatment of neurocysticercosis (or pork...

Definitely not. This is going to offer zero or maybe very 'marginal gains' but it is nothing like the old blood doping/Epo use. It is more like the benefit from salbutamol or sildenafil - i.e. not very much at all.

You're assuming that he's using the same blood-based doping as LA, AC, Floyd etc. Maybe Sky have some newer, better technique which works for much longer than the average life of a red blood cell. Maybe it's something to improve oxygen carrying and transfer that is independent of haematocrit...

The annual dose is only used in people living in places with lots of bilharzia e.g., on the shore of Lake Victoria. Repeated diagnostic testing is not practical there so it is far easier to just treat each year. In someone like Froome, who will not be repeatedly exposed, it is just a single...

From my perspective (I treat people with this regularly), this makes no sense. I can post photos of my text books or suggest you read about it on either: 1. http://www.uptodate.com 2. http://www.cdc.gov/parasites/schistosomiasis/treatment.html It is nearly always cured and the ones that...

It's a one off treatment. If people live in an endemic area and are thus likely to be re-exposed, then they can get re-treatment each year. But that is to treat re-infection. For someone like Froome, one off treatment is standard. Check the CDC website...

Exactly right. Also - with the 'full check' that found it 'straight away', the serology test usually takes more than a week to come back in any of the places I have worked.

As stated earlier, bilharzia is a term only really used in Africa. I only ever use the term schistosomiasis. Apologies if my spelling of a word I never use causes you problems. However, I also did a direct copy and paste from UpToDate (http://www.uptodate.com) - the best source of info used by...

That is correct.

There is an early form of bilharzia, occurring about one to two months after exposure. This is called Katayama Fever, or acute schistosomiasis. With this, you'd be quite sick for a few weeks and would be very unlikely to be on the bike. About half people get this. Beyond this acute (i.e...

From a medical perspective, there are a lot of strange statements there.

Only concern is re-infection post treatment. Appropriate dose will kill the parasites outright. There have been some slightly resistant strains in Senegal that needed bigger doses. Not in Kenya though.

I only ever call it schistosomiasis. Bilharzia is an African word, not an English one.

Again, from UpToDate: Adverse effects of praziquantel are generally mild, but occur in approximately one-third of patients. Side effects include dizziness, headache, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and pruritus. These symptoms may be partly related to the drug itself and partly related to...