A Chinese medical worker visits a village in Zanzibar. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Disease falls victim to resolute prevention efforts
Many people enjoy running or walking along the picturesque banks of the Yangtze River in Nanjing's Pukou district, attracted by spacious areas of greenery, countless willow trees and fresh breezes.
However, if they want to swim or wade in the river, they will be stopped by Yang Wenrong and his colleagues.
A member of the district's control center for schistosomiasis, a disease caused by parasitic worms, Yang's daily work involves patrolling the river banks to prevent people becoming infected.
Commonly known in China as "blood-sucking worms", the parasites can penetrate the skin within 10 seconds.
Yang said: "Many people like to play in the water, but on numerous stretches of the Yangtze, this is not safe. Contact with the water should be avoided, especially on warm and hot days. Even those who have to work on the river, such as flood control employees, must wear protective clothing and rubber gloves."
Schistosomiasis, which infects humans and animals, can cause fever, diarrhea and an enlarged liver, among other conditions. Without proper treatment, it may result in death.
The worms lay eggs inside the body, which are later excreted. Eggs that come into contact with water hatch into a larva known as miracidia, which later invades its sole intermediate hosts－oncomelania, or freshwater snails－before developing cercariae, a free-swimming larva.
Once humans or animals come into contact with water containing cercariae, they are infected with schistosomiasis. The parasites will continue to produce numerous eggs, harming the liver and spleen.
Workers from the World Health Organization evaluate China-Zanzibar schistosomiasis control prevention and elimination efforts. [Photo provided to China Daily]
Many patients with the disease experience distended stomachs, as they accumulate fluid in the peritoneal cavity, the fluid-filled gap between the walls of the abdomen and organs contained within the abdomen. In advanced cases, women who are infected become infertile and children experience dwarfism－short stature resulting from a genetic or medical condition.
Chinese have been battling the disease for more than 2,000 years. In 1971, in Changsha, Hunan province, the body of a female was unearthed at a tomb used during the Western Han Dynasty (206 BC-AD 24). Scientists later found the eggs of a parasitic flatworm known as a schistosome in the body.
In 1905, in the first confirmed case of schistosomiasis in China, schistosome eggs were found in the feces of a farmer in Changde county, Hunan.
Up to the 1950s, the disease was prevalent in 350 counties across 12 provinces and municipalities in China, including Shanghai, Jiangsu and Zhejiang. More than 10 million people were infected and over 100 million were exposed to it.
Stricken soldiers
In 1949, when the People's Republic of China was founded, the country started to battle the disease.
In May that year, after the PLA liberated Shanghai, the 9th Corps of the 3rd Field Army, stationed in the Shanghai suburbs of Songjiang and Jiading, were training for the battle to liberate Taiwan.
However, after exercises held in water, many of the 100,000 troops became infected with schistosomiasis and developed rashes, fever and diarrhea.
With the help of a Chinese researcher who graduated in the United Kingdom, a schistosomiasis control committee was quickly established in suburban Shanghai. In December 1949, more than 2,000 medical workers and students from hospitals and medical colleges in the city joined the committee to treat the soldiers.
Chinese medical workers encourage students in Zanzibar to improve awareness of preventing schistosomiasis, a disease caused by parasitic worms. [Photo provided to China Daily]
According to the Jiangsu Institute of Parasitic Diseases, since the 1950s, the province has had more than 2.53 million patients with schistosomiasis. Four of 10 counties nationwide with the most serious infections were in Jiangsu.
At the time, the disease wiped out the populations of several villages in Kunshan, a county in Suzhou. In 1955, during medical checkups for military conscription, 85.5 percent of the young men examined were found to be infected with schistosomiasis. In 1956, the county was exempted from military duty for seven consecutive years.
In Xinming village, Gaoyou county, Jiangsu, a total of 4,019 of the 5,257 residents were infected with the disease in 1950, with 1,335 dying in less than six months.
In the two decades from 1950, Rentun village in Shanghai was known as a "ghost village", as half the population had died from the disease. It claimed the members of 121 families and infected 97 percent of the 461 people who were previously healthy. No babies were born in the village for more than seven years.
In 1953, Shen Junru, the first president of the Supreme People's Court, wrote to Chairman Mao Zedong, informing him of the prevalence of schistosomiasis in provinces on the lower reaches of the Yangtze River. As a result, a systematic and effective national battle was launched against the disease.
A central prevention and control team, led by Ke Qingshi, the Shanghai Party secretary, was formed in 1955. Numerous teams were later established in counties, cities and provinces to treat patients and control the disease.
In Wuxi, Jiangsu, Li Wei, head of the general office of the Jiangsu Institute of Parasitic Diseases, said many medical workers have devoted their lives to preventing and controlling schistosomiasis.
