Schistosomiasis is listed as a "neglected" tropical disease by the World Health Organization — one of those diseases thats been overlooked by modern medicine.
It mainly hits poor people in poor countries — and it hits a lot of them, up to 200 million a year. There are only a few drugs available to treat it. There are no designer drugs being cooked up in a lab in Europe for schistosomiasis. Doctoral students rarely pen their thesis on this disease.
But schistosomiasis can also be "neglected" by the very people it attacks. It can be a stealth disease. The infection starts slowly. A flatworm penetrates the skin of someone walking or working or swimming in contaminated water. The person doesnt feel sick. They pick up more parasites.