Farewell to the God of Plague: China for the world disease control program
- Author:
Xiao-Nong ZHOU
1
;
Abe Michael ENIOLA
;
Shizhu LI
Author Information
1. National Institute of Parasitic Diseases
- Keywords:
Schistosomiasis;
Control program;
Experience;
Lesson;
Strategy;
Surveillance;
Global health
- From:
Global Health Journal
2019;3(1):1-3
- CountryChina
- Language:Chinese
-
Abstract:
Schistosomiasis was one of the most prevalent severe infectious diseases in China.Most ot the control plans implemented were based on local settings;thus,the national schistosomiasis control program involved different control phases.These included a working mechanism based on multisectoral cooperation which involved government at all levels,communities,and professionals.It also involved updating the technical strategies and interventions through intensive research,to provide adequate support for programs at different stageswith changing natural and social features.To commemorate the 61st anniversary of publishing Chairman Mao Zedong's two poems titled Farewell to the God of Plague,we have distilled lessons leamt from national schistosomiasis control programs,which could be transferred to other endemic countries.Based on this work,we published a series of articles to demonstrate the successive programs in different areas or levels in China,and also discussed how best to apply those successive experiences into African countries where schistosomiasis is still a public health problem.There are three major lessons learnt from the Chinese national schistosomiasis control program over the last six decades:(1) sustained commitment by the Chinese governments,from central to local levels;(2) continuous update of control strategies and interventions applied at the village level,based on local settings;and (3) maintaining surveillance-response systems implementation in programs at all levels.With sustained efforts,only 37,000 patients including 2.9％ advanced patient cases were found in the country,with six provinces out of the 12 endemic provinces yet to achieve transmission interruption,based on the epidemiological report in 2017.Therefore,Chinese experiences in disease control program are sufficient to promote disease control programs in other developing countries,which would also improve the visibility of Chinese contribution to the world disease control programs.Pursuit of this global engagement will also provide the impetus to maintain our surveillance-response capacity in the post-elimination stage.
