Pain, organ damage, infertility: the neglected disease that leaves millions of women in agony

Parasites in ponds and rivers cause female genital schistosomiasis - easily treated but rarely diagnosed. A health campaign in Kenya aims to change this

After a year of debilitating pain, Penina Kitsao discovered what was really wrong with her after a routine screening for something else.The farmer from Kilifi in eastern Kenya had contracted female genital schistosomiasis (FGS) from the small parasitic worms in the pond her family uses for all their water.

I couldn't do anything for weeks," says Kitsao, a 33-year-old mother of four. Doctors kept giving me the same pills every time I went to the hospital. They would suppress the symptoms for a few days, and then they would return even worse."