Egypt's schistosomiasis control programme in the 1980s prepared the ground for the global elimination of schistosomiasis by 2030.
A paper published in 1990 by Webbe and El Hag described the progress being made in the control of schistosomiasis with the introduction of a new medicine 'Praziquantel' to treat infected individuals, and the use of a molluscicide 'niclosamide', with which to kill the intermediate host snails. Almost 30 years from the date of publication, the situation in Egypt and indeed globally has changed out of all recognition. Almost every country in Africa has a school health programme to deworm children, each country has a national plan which includes school health, and praziquantel is now donated through the World Health Organization for countries to treat school aged children to protect themMadrid, Spain – In the tiny village of Tajajuerce in northeast Spain, 83-year-old Silvino Gil recently received some excellent news. The remains of his father, Pedro, one of the tens of thousands of victims of the whims of this country’s brutal former dictator, could soon be coming home for burial.

In the 1950s, and almost invariably without relatives’ permission or knowledge, Spain’s then-ruler General Francisco Franco ordered a nationwide disinterment campaign – removing the bodies of more than 30,000 victims of the Civil War from their places of rest. Some, like Pedro, had been killed in battle. Others had been executed by the general’s death squads.

Their bodies were taken for reburial in the Valley of the Fallen, a vast basilica close to Madrid, built ostensibly to commemorate all Civil