Conclusions
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1.
Clinical, epidermiological or experimental facts do not authorise the conclusion that urinary Bilharziosis may become endemic in Portuguese India.
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2.
However, one definite autochthonous case of human urinary Bilharziosis has been registered in the village of Valpoy where from 1912 to 1934 were living African troops infected with these trematodes.
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3.
Unless some other mechanism of infection be discovered, it is reasonable to believe that some local mollusc has conveyed the infection.
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4.
This intermediary mollusc cannot be anhabitual host—as the epidemiological facts are entirely against such an hypothesis—but a snail in which this infection occurs rarely and in some wayaccidentally.
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5.
On this point of view we propose the division of the vectors of Schistosomiasis into 3 groups:habitual, secondary andeventual, according to the evolutive cycle occursin natura and frequently,in natura or experimentally but rarely and at last, aseventual those who having shown a definite miracidial attraction, often followed by penetration, have not, under experimental conditions, demonstrated the final phase of sporocyst or cercaria.
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6.
We believe that sucheventual hosts are responsible for the sporadic cases of Bilharziosis occurring in an indemn area, after the import of this disease from abroad.
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7.
Among such molluses two species are found in Valpoi:Melanoides tuberculatus already incriminated by Gopsill, andLimnœa luteola Lamarckf. pinguis Dohrn, where an evident miracidial attraction often followed by penetration was definitely seen.
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de Mello, I.F. An explanation to the occurrence of sporadic cases of Urinary Schistosomiasis in India. Proc. Indian Acad. Sci. 3, 107–114 (1936). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03049349
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03049349