History
The eggs of these parasites were first seen by Theodor Maximilian Bilharz, a German pathologist working in Egypt in 1851 who found the eggs of Schistosoma haematobium during the course of a post mortem. He wrote two letters to his former teacher von Siebold in May and August 1851 describing his findings. Von Siebold wrote a paper (published in 1852) summarizing Bilharz's findings. Bilharz wrote a paper in 1856 describing the worms more fully and he named them Distoma haematobium. Their unusual morphology meant that they could not be comfortably included in Distoma. So in 1856 Meckel von Helmsback created the genus Bilharzia for them. In 1858 Weinland proposed the name Schistosoma (Greek: 'split body') after the male worms' morphology. Despite Bilharzia having precedence the genus name Schistosoma was officially adopted by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. The term Bilharzia to describe infection with these parasites is still in use in medical circles.
Bilharz also described Schistosoma mansoni but this species was redescribed by Louis Westenra Sambon in 1907 at the London School of Tropical Medicine who named it after his teacher Patrick Manson.
In 1898, all the then known species were placed in a subfamily by Stiles and Hassel. This was then elevated to family status by Looss in 1899. Poche in 1907 corrected a grammatical error in the family name. The life cycle was determined by da Silva in 1908.
In 2009, the genomes of Schistosoma mansoni and Schistosoma japonicum were decoded opening the way for new targeted treatments. In particular, the study discovered that the genome of S. mansoni contained 11,809 genes including many which produce enzymes for breaking down proteins which enable the parasite to bore through tissue. Also, S. mansoni does not have an enzyme to make certain fats so that it must rely on its host to produce these.
Read more about this topic: Schistosoma
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