Are there any specific recommendations for the detection of schistosome eggs?
When trying to diagnose schistosomiasis, regardless of the species suspected you should be examining both stool (several different stool specimens) and urine (spot urines plus 24 hour specimen) (collected with no preservatives). Occasionally adult worms get into blood vessels where they aren’t normally found (Example: S. mansoni eggs found in urine only). When you perform a sedimentation concentration, use saline to prevent premature egg hatching. Once you are ready to try a hatching procedure, then you can put the sediment into spring water (dechlorinated water) to stimulate hatching. When examining wet mounts under the microscope, you need to look for the movement of cilia on the larvae within the egg shell (thus the need to collect the specimens with no preservatives). You want to be able to tell the physician whether the eggs, if present, are viable or all you see are dead egg shells. If you suspect schistosomiasis, I would recommend looking at a number of wet mounts, particularly
