Schistosomiasis, also called snail fever is a common intravascular trematode infection. It is one of the most prevalent parasitic diseases in the world, second behind malaria. It affects 207 million of the world's poorest people through 74 countries in several parts of the world (King, 2009), 85% of them live in sub-Saharan Africa. It is estimated that schistosomiasis causes about 200,000 deaths per year. The development of simple, rapid and sensitive methods for detecting circulating schistosomal antigen are needed as most available assays require several laboratory equipment and highly skilled persons. Being simple and rapid; latex-based diagnostic tests have been used for detecting specific antigens or antibodies in several diseases. This study aimed at the development of polyclonal antibody -based Latex agglutination test as a simple, rapid and field applicable screening test for SEA in serum and urine samples of human schistosomiasis.

Azza El Amir, Noha Mahana are immunologists, Zoology Department, Faculty of Science, Cairo University. They are so interested in endemic parasitology and human treatment and diagnosis of these parasites