[Comparison of immune response in patients with bilharziasis (S. mansoni) from Africa south of the Sahara and Antilles].

Retrospective study has been conducted in the parasitic and tropical diseases department of the hospital Cochin, based on observations made between 1966 and 1985 on antibody rates in sera of 709 bilharziasis patients (S. mansoni). This study shows a great difference of immunologic reaction between the group of patients from French West Indies (458 patients) and the one of the group of patients from Africa South of Sahara (189 patients). Such an observation leads the authors to suppose a difference between strains of schistosomes from Black Africa and French West Indies.