Religion and Gender Behavior: Understanding Variations in Urinary Schistosomiasis Among Farmers

Abstract Urinary schistosomiasis is a chronic disease that is widely spread among the poor. It is caused by blood fluke of the genus Schistosoma, and transmitted to humans through water related activities by way of skin penetration. The infection is rarely fatal, however, it could impact on economic and health situations of infected individual often leading to learning disabilities and poor work productivity. We evaluated the prevalence level and dissimilarity of endemicity of urinary schistosomiasis among farmers in Shonga, a rural community in Edu Local Government Area (LGA) of Kwara State, Nigeria. Prior to the initiation of sample collection, we sought permission from the community head (Emir), followed by community awareness creation among head of farmers association, religious leaders and women leaders. Subsequently, we collected 121 urine samples from the consenting farmers and examined specimens for the presence of S. haematobium eggs using filtration techniques. Urinary schistosomiasis was endemic and dissimilar among the examined farmers, with 56(46.3%) out of the 121 examined specimens positive. Grouping farming type by religion, yam farmers were significantly different from the sugar cane farmers, but there was no statistical difference among Muslim and Christian farmers even though there was higher infection rate (50.7%) among the Muslim farmers than their Christian counterparts (40%). Conversely, classifying farming type by gender, vegetable farmers were significantly different from sugar cane farmers while female farmers were also statistically more infected than their male counterparts. This study shows that urinary schistosomiasis is endemic among farmers in Shonga, with significant variations in farming type and gender. Therefore, this finding will provide necessary guidance in allocating limited public health interventions among endemic groups to ensure such are delivered to the categories that require it most.