The role of health education and health promotion in the control of schistosomiasis: experiences from a 12-year intervention study in the Poyang Lake area.

The objectives of this study were to examine the short-term effects of health education and health promotion in the control of schistosomiasis, and to monitor the long-term impact on re-infection patterns. The study was carried out in six Schistosoma japonicum-endemic villages located in the Poyang Lake area. Three different interventions were implemented, namely (i) health education by means of video tapes, training in prevention of infection, and a 'rewards/punishment' programme for schoolchildren, (ii) promotion of an understanding of schistosomiasis and its control plus training in prevention of infection for women, and (iii) encouragement of compliance with regard to chemotherapy plus training in prevention of infection for men.

Optimal combined approaches of field intervention for schistosomiasis control in China.

Before the mid 1980s, the emphasis in schistosomiasis control in China was on transmission control. Thus, the aim was to eliminate the intermediate host snail by environmental management, combined with chemotherapy, water supply and sanitation, and hygiene improvement. During the last 20 years, however, control approaches mainly consisting of large-scale praziquantel-based chemotherapy and health education started to be advocated and also increasingly applied.

Persistence of the protective immunity to Schistosoma japonicum in Chinese yellow cattle induced by recombinant 26kDa glutathione-S-transferase (reSjc26GST).

To observe the long lasting effect of the recombinant Sj26GST sub-unit vaccine against Schistosoma japonicum in cattle, animals aged from 5 to 12 months were vaccinated with reSjc26GST, and were challenged by natural infection 6 months or 12 months after vaccination. Worm burdens per cattle and egg burden in tissue (per gram) of cattle with or without vaccination were compared. The results showed that anti-reSjc26GST antibodies were produced in vaccinated cattle.

The prevalence and control of schistosomiasis in Poyang Lake region, China.

Poyang Lake, the largest fresh water lake in China, is the major transmission site of Schistosoma japonicum in China. This paper reviews the history of prevalence, efforts and achievements of controlling schistosomiasis and current status of endemicity. The epidemiological characteristics including descriptions of the endemic areas, snail host, definitive hosts, infection source, transmission and impacts of water conservancy, as well as objectives and strategy of control in Poyang Lake are discussed.

Pilot study of schistosomiasis control in Poyang lake region.

Aim: To perform a longitudinal survey of the control of schistosomiasis in Fanhu Village hyperendemic for schistosomiasis, Poyang Lake region of Jiangxi Province from 1992 to 1996.

Methods: Annual mass chemotherapy and health education were implemented in all investigated individuals, in 1996, artesunate was used in high risk population in transmission season as a prophylactic measure.

Results: The prevalence of S.

The potential risk and control strategy in low endemic area of schistosomiasis in China.

Objective: to describe and analyze the potential risk and suggest the corresponding control strategy in low endemic of schistosomiasis in China.

Methods: referring the 'national criteria of control and elimination of schistosomiasis' and the 'national criteria of classification of endemic area for chemotherapy'; collecting the data of the re-infection of schistosomiasis in lake region and residual snails in mountain areas and evolution of endemic situation in 'snail ridden areas without schistosomiasis'; analyzing the potential risk in different types of low endemic area and suggesting the control strategies according to the analysis results and historical experiment.

Results: the re-infection rate of schistosomiasis in residents is usually higher in high, medium and low endemic areas in the lake region, once chemotherapy is stopped, the infection rate may rise again to the initial level 2 years later and bovine chemotherapy and snail control in susceptible zone will be selected as the optimal strategies for controlling the endemic situation; the potential risk in mountain areas is the enlargement of snail habitats due to residual snail's reproduction and the control strategy will be to strengthen the surveillance and elimination of residual snails; inputting the infective sources of schistosomiasis is the potential risk in 'snail ridden area without schistosomiasis' and the main control strategy should be put the regular monitoring on the infection sources from hyper-endemic areas and treat the infected domestic animals in time.

The role of health education for schistosomiasis control in heavy endemic area of Poyang Lake region, People's Republic of China.

For exploring the impact of health education for schistosomiasis control in a heavy endemic area of Poyang Lake region, China, the residents residing in the heavy endemic area were divide into three kinds of target population: pupils, adult women and adult men, and then targeted health education was implemented respectively among the three kinds of population after a baseline survey. The result were compared with that in the control group. The anti-schistosomiasis knowledge level among the three kinds of population improved significantly, the correct rate of attitude to examination and chemotherapy among pupils and adult men and the correct rate of anti-schistosomiasis value concept among women were raised greatly, obedience to examination and chemotherapy among adult men increased, the rate of infested water exposure and infection rate among pupils and adult women declined remarkably.

Vaccination of domestic pig with recombinant paramyosin. against Schistosoma japonicum in China.

Paramyosin (PM), a myosin-like protein is a major antigen on Schistosoma japonicum (Sj). We reported that passive transfer of a monoclonal IgE SjE18varepsilon.1 which recognizes PM of Sj (SJPM), partially protected mice from challenge infection.

Impact mass chemotherapy with praziquantel on schistosomiasis control in Fanhu village, People's Republic of China.

The paper describes the endemic situation of schistosomiasis japonica in Fanhu village, Poyang Lake region, China and the effect of the strategy of combining annual mass chemotherapy with health education on schistosomiasis control in the community. The results showed that the prevalence of infection with schistosome reduced form 26.0% in 1992 to 10.

[Snail distribution and susceptible zones of schistosomiasis in endemic areas around Poyang Lake].

To understand the situation of snail distribution and to explore the criteria of susceptible zones of schisosomiasis in endemic areas around Poyang Lake, a total of 1,222,910 mu of marshland in lake regions were surveyed for three years from 1982 through 1984 by 400 skillful observers. This article reports the relation between mean density of infected snails and incidence of acute schistosomiasis in marshland. We divided all susceptible marshlands of Poyang Lake area into three types, and found that about one fourth of the area belongs to the first type of susceptible zones, i.