On Friday, Chinese Premier Li Keqiang, while at a national conference in Changsha in Hunan Province, called for efforts to speed up the drafting of the comprehensive prevention and treatment plan on snail fever in the country for the next 10 years, Xinhua reported.
Despite its economic and technological advances, China has yet to totally wipe out schistosomiasis, a fatal parasitic disease commonly known as snail fever, in the country. Eradicating schistosomiasis remains an "arduous" task despite achievements in recent years, Li said.
Archaeological studies have revealed that schistosomiasis has been in China as far back as 2,100 years ago.
Schistosomias is caused by parasitic worms of the Schistosoma variety. It is spread by contact with water that contains the parasites. The parasitic worms are usually released by freshwater snails that have been infected. Once in the bloodstream, the disease attacks the kidney, liver, intestines, urinary tract and other organs inside the body, with the worst region of infection being the central nervous system.
The disease is endemic in 380 counties comprising 12 provinces south of the Yangtze River in China.
However, Vice Premier Liu Yandong, who was also present at the conference, stressed that snail fever has already been eradicated in five high-prevalence provincial regions, while other regions have seen their recorded number of cases at new record lows.
Li asked all concerned agencies to carry out a comprehensive prevention and treatment plan that would ensure eradication of the disease by "putting a check on the source of the infection at the core, improve prevention and control ability, and cut off the spreading channels effectively."
He also added that "sound treatment should be offered to patients," and that "poor people should be given special assistance."
A more integrated control strategy aimed at reducing the cyclical transmission of schistosomiasis infection from and to snails, cattle and humans has to be developed and adopted.
Further, some interventions in certain cases may have to be set in place, including agricultural mechanization to reduce reliance on work farm animals, supplying clean water and sanitation, routine application of molluscicides and continuing health education.