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Why Praziquantel Alone Can’t Eliminate Schistosomiasis — And What the Snail Data Shows
Praziquantel works. Nobody is arguing otherwise. The drug clears schistosome infections reliably, costs almost nothing per dose, and has been at the center of control programs across sub-Saharan Africa for decades. But here’s the thing that keeps coming up in field data: treating infected children every year does not remove the snails that re-infect them every year. You can hand out pills at every school in the Federal Capital Territory of Nigeria, and the kids will wade back into the same ponds after the rains, and Bulinus will be waiting. That gap — between what we’re doing and what elimination actually requires — is what a 12-month survey across Abuja’s six area…


