Helminthiases in the People's Republic of China: Status and prospects
Introduction
This special issue of Acta Tropica pertaining to the status and prospects of helminthiases in the People's Republic of China (P.R. China) was initiated to shed new light on which helminth infections pose the greatest threat and what is being done domestically to improve the situation. In spite of available drugs and vaccines for some helminth infections, continuation of deeply rooted lifestyles and behaviours contribute to the emergence, re-emergence and spread of infections, while the lack of sufficiently sensitive diagnostics makes it difficult to produce reliable estimates of the distribution and burden of the endemic helminth diseases when infection intensity falls (Bergquist et al., 2009; Utzinger et al., 2015).
The cross-disciplinary perspective applied here brings together disease-specific research, innovative approaches and information on prevalence rates as it highlights research priorities and suggests ways to take them forward. Early recognition of the role of poverty in sustaining the panorama of endemic diseases has led to a deeper understanding of health-related poverty alleviation (King, 2010; Wang and Zhou, 2020). Meanwhile, political will, intersectoral collaboration and community participation will underpin the sustained commitment needed to achieve a working control strategy in P.R. China and elsewhere (Hotez, 2019; Nakagawa et al., 2015; Wang et al., 2008). The unfolding story of conquering the endemic helminthiases started with the elimination of lymphatic filariasis (Fang and Zhang, 2019), and other helminths are now being dealt with in a consorted manner (Fig. 1). As a consequence, we are witnessing the payoffs of this forward thinking in the form of novel ways of disease risk profiling, transmission control and different aspects of social and economic approaches, emphasising the importance of health promotion and education. The set of recommendations issuing from this special issue will no doubt further consolidate current control activities with the ultimate aim to eliminate all the main endemic helminthiases from P.R. China.
The purpose of this special issue was to investigate and update the current situation of the major helminthiases in P.R. China, including geographical distribution, epidemiological characteristics and risk factors. This is supported by the work of Chinese scientists in diverse areas of study, covering epidemiological assessment and disease burden estimates, progress in surveillance and public health responses, diagnostics, treatment, host-parasite interaction capacity building and international cooperation. The overarching theme concerns how laboratory and applied research are working hand-in-hand to produce and utilize control tools that contribute to the gaining and sustaining of control and eventually elimination of helminth infections in P.R. China.
Section snippets
General profile
Basic research facilitates discovery that leads to a deeper understanding of biology and disease mechanisms that, in turn, spurs innovation for development of novel tools for disease control and elimination. Applied research promotes the validation and application of improved tools, including diagnosis, drugs and vaccines. Together, these activities contribute to the advancement of control and elimination strategies, which play a key role in the decrease of helminth infections and interruption
Target helminths: a landscape of different distributions
From a historical point of view, the disease caused by the blood fluke Schistosoma japonicum ranks as the most important helminth infection in P.R. China (Chen et al., 2018; Li et al., 2017; Utzinger et al., 2005). High morbidity countered national development and the government continues giving control of schistosomiasis a high priority since the 1950s when an estimated 11–12 million people were affected (Utzinger et al., 2005). The main control strategy over time changed from snail control to
Concluding remarks
Infectious diseases of poverty currently affect 3 billion people worldwide and many of these diseases are due to helminths. Since they affect large populations in low- and middle-income countries and cause a considerable global burden, helminth infections constitute a major share of those listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) as neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) (GBD 2017 DALYs and HALE Collaborators, 2018; WHO 2020). Historically, P.R. China has been endemic for a large number of
Acknowledgement
We thank Mr. Alain Hollfelder for assistance with meta-data analysis of the 34 original articles of the current special issue of Acta Tropica pertaining to helminthiases in the People's Republic of China.
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