Quality of information about biological cycles of Schistosoma mansoni broadcasted on the world wide web – internet

Abstract

The internet is growing in the field of education, especially in the area of dissemination, research, educational support and communication. Given this background the quality of information about biological cycles of Schistosoma mansoni available on the internet was evaluated. The methodology applied was the use of the search engine Google Images®. A total of 45 different cycles were found. It was observed that there is no reliable reference about information sources in the preparation of these cycles, since the same mistakes are insistently repeated. Frequently the use of the snail’s image occurred in a stereotyped or minimized way, leading to misrepresentations and pedagogically inadequate representations, avoiding the adequate recognition of the snail in the environment and thus exposing the reader to the risk of infection.