East China's Shanghai Municipality will issue an emergency plan
to prevent the outbreak of schistosomiasis, a tropical disease
infected by schistosoma, a worm parasitic in the blood of human
beings and mammals, said sources with the municipal government on
Saturday.
Shanghai will cooperate with south China's Guangdong Province,
the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, east China's Zhejiang and
Fujian provinces, where the transmission of the epidemic has been
cut off, to strengthen the monitoring of the disease, said Yang
Xiaodu, vice mayor of Shanghai.
The epidemic, characterized by infection and gradual destruction
of the tissues of human kidneys, liver and other organs, had been
widespread in China.
As a region where the epidemic had prevailed, Shanghai had
witnessed nine of its 10 districts and counties tortured by the
disease, said Yang.
Shanghai exterminated the infection of the disease in 1985 and
since then it has had no report of cases of acute schistosoma
infection and local originated cases for many years. However,
danger of the outbreak of the disease exists as oncomelania, the
most popular host for the parasite worm, can still be found in
Shanghai.
By the end of last year, 19 confirmed cases and many suspected
cases of the disease had been found in Shanghai, all exported from
other places.
Only 420,000 migrant workers in Shanghai received special blood
checks last year, covering 15 percent of all the registered in the
public security departments. And, none of the people who have gone
to the epidemic-stricken areas has been monitored, said Yang.
(Xinhua News Agency June 19, 2004)