There are reports of many intestinal-helminth negative stool specimens in most laboratories in Ghana even though the prevalence of these infections seems to be on the increase. In this study 2000 stool specimens collected between May and October 2008 in The Reference Laboratory of the Ashanti Region of Ghana were screened using Direct Wet Mount, Kato-Katz and Formol-Ether Concentration methods. The Formol-Ether Concentration method gave the highest prevalence (11.1%) of helminth parasites made up of hookworm, Dicrocoelium dendriticum, Strongyloides stercoralis, Schistosoma mansoni, Hymenolepis nana, Taenia species and Trichuris trichiura. The direct wet mount and Kato-Katz detected total prevalence of 3.2% and 5.1% respectively. Kato-Katz showed good agreement with the formol-ether concentration in the detection of hookworms, T. trichiura and S. mansoni infections (99.1% sensitivity) with positive and negative predictive values of 100% and 99.5% respectively. This study confirmed earlier reports that the traditional Direct Wet Mount screening test is less sensitivity hence the employment of Formol-Ether Concentration as a confirmatory test in routine laboratory examination of stool samples will significantly reduce misdiagnosis of intestinal helminth infections and its attendant public health consequences.

Theodor Bilharz (1825-1862) is one of the founders of tropical medicine. He is best remembered for his discovery of the Schistosomiasis worm. During his short life span, he received his medical degree in Tubingen then specialized in anatomy and microscopy in Freiburg. In 1850, he was sent by his professor von Siebold to Egypt in order to investigate the worms which infest the Egyptian population. By 1853, Bilharz was able to identify the worms and their eggs in the bladder and the liver and to describe the disease which remains his enduring scientific legacy. In 1856, the disease was named Bilharzia as designated by Meckel von Hembach. His discovery of Schistosoma was just a part of his contribution in science. Bilharz worked for over a decade on the study of ethnology, geography and ecology. He also discovered Heterophyes Heterophes and Hymenolepis nana in the human intestine. His death in 1862 during an outbreak of typhoid in Egypt when he was helping people suffering from the disease and thereafter contracted it himself, terminated a life of service to science. Bilharz was buried in the cemetery of Roman Catholics in Old Cairo.