Bilharzia Infection in South Africa

Abstract

In 1916 Dr J. C. Becker made the interesting discovery of Bilharzia infection in Physopsis africana collected at Nijlstroom in the Transvaal and obtained the adult flukes in some guinea-pigs he had exposed to infection with the cercariae. The town of Nijlstroom is situated at the source of a tributary of the Limpopo river at an altitude of 3924 feet above the Indian Ocean into which it flows. In 1917 I collected2 infested examples of P. africana at Magaliesburg, a popular picnic place for Krugersdorp residents, situated on a branch of the Little Crocodile river which later joins the Limpopo. Magaliesburg has an altitude of 5000 feet above sea-level. I also obtained infested examples from Rustenburg, thus revealing a further source of infection from tributaries of the Little Crocodile river, at an altitude of over 4000 feet.