SCOTTISH scientists have called for African infants to be routinely screened for a disease that causes impaired memory and organ damage.

Edinburgh University research has challenged a misconception that infants in sub-Saharan Africa are at low risk of contracting snail fever – also known as bilharzia or schistosomiasis.

Currently, infants are not regularly tested for infection as they are perceived to be at low risk of exposure to the water-borne disease and not to suffer severely from its effects.

However, researchers tested hundreds of children aged between one and five and found that infection rates are high among pre-school children.

This is thought to be because they often accompany their mothers to rivers and wells. Symptoms are not always obvious.

The study found a common snail-fever drug, known as praziquantel, which is regularly given to older children and adults, can safely cure the infection in infants.

It is cheap and effective, curing infection and stopping the progress of disease in a single dose.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh carried out studies in Zimbabwe and their results were combined with work by other teams in Mali, Sudan, Egypt, Niger and Uganda.

In a recent World Health Organisation report, the teams recommended that infants be included in treatment programmes, and their work is informing public health policy.

According to the WHO, snail fever affects 230 million people each year, most of whom are African.