Abstract
Schistosomiasis japonica, caused by Schistosoma japonicum infection, remains a major public health concern in China, and the geographical distribution of this neglected tropical disease is limited to regions where Oncomelania hupensis, the intermediate host of the causative parasite, is detected. The purpose of this study was to monitor the transmission of S. japonicum in potential risk regions of China during the period from 2008 through 2012. To monitor the transmission, 10 fixed surveillance sites and 30 mobile sentinel sites were selected in 10 counties of four provinces, namely Anhui, Jiangsu, Chongqing and Hubei. There were 8, 9, 6, 2 and 3 cases infected with S. japonicum detected in the 30 mobile sentinel sites during the 5-year study period, while 27 subjects were positive for the antibody-based serum test in the 10 fixed sentinel sites; however, no infection was found. In addition, neither local nor imported livestock were found to be infected. No O. hupensis snails were detected in either the fixed surveillance or the mobile sentinel sites; however, the snail host was found to survive and reproduce at Chaohu Lake, inferring the potential of transmission of the disease. It is suggested that the continuous surveillance of schistosomiasis japonica should be carried out in both the endemic foci and potential risk regions of China, and an active, sensitive system to respond the potential risk of transmission seems justified.
Highlights
Schistosomiasis japonica, which is a snail-transmitted, water-borne devastating neglected tropical disease caused by infection of Schistosoma japonicum, remains a major public health concern inChina [1,2,3], and the distribution of the disease is governed by the intermediate host Oncomelania hupensis [4,5]
The present study was designed to monitor the transmission of S. japonicum in 10 fixed surveillance sites and 30 mobile sentinel sites from 10 counties of Anhui, Jiangsu, Chongqing and Hubei provinces, China, on the water diversion route of the projects where a potential of transmission of schistosomiasis japonica is defined during the period from 2008 to 2012, so as to provide the data support for the formulation of the control strategy of schistosomiasis in potential risk regions and the establishment of a surveillance-response system
Of the 7,437 and 4,939 local residents screened for S. japonicum infection using indirect haemagglutination assay (IHA) in the 10 fixed surveillance sites and 30 mobile sentinel sites in 2008 and 2012, 58 and 25 subjects were sero-positive (Table 1), no infection was detected in any of the sero-positive cases by the Kato-Katz technique
Summary
Schistosomiasis japonica, which is a snail-transmitted, water-borne devastating neglected tropical disease caused by infection of Schistosoma japonicum, remains a major public health concern inChina [1,2,3], and the distribution of the disease is governed by the intermediate host Oncomelania hupensis [4,5]. The impact of water resource development and global climate change on the transmission of schistosomiasis has been illustrated [7,8,9,10,11,12]. It is predicted that the global warming would cause the expansion of the current snail habitants northward, resulting in the potential of transmission of schistosomiasis japonica in non-endemic regions, north of China [13]. The water resource development including the South-to-North Water Diversion Project, the Yangtze-to-Chaohu Water Diversion Project, the Yangtze-to-Hanjiang Water Diversion Project and the Three Gorges Dam all cross the snail-breeding regions, and the effect of the construction of these projects on the original landscape of schistosomiasis transmission has been paid much attention [11,14,15,16].
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