HAEMATOBIUM SCHISTOSOMIASIS PRESENTING IN THE NETHERLANDS AS A SKIN-DISEASE

A rare case is reported of extragenital skin schistosomiasis as the pr esenting symptom in a 24-year-old Dutch student, who had swum some mon ths earlier in Lake Malawi in Mozambique. Grouped papules dorsolateral on the lower thorax were shown by biopsy to be due to infection by Sc histosoma haematobium. The eggs were viable and surrounded by necrosis and partly purulent, partly granulomatous dermatitis that also affect ed hair follicles. The second biopsy, taken 2.5 months after treatment with praziquantel, still showed viable eggs and necrosis but no more microabscesses. In the third biopsy 5 weeks after a second praziquante l treatment, no eggs were found, but a partly granulomatous abscess fo rming inflammation affecting a hair follicle was still present.