[A cross analysis on the capability of examining helminths: national technique competition for parasitic disease diagnosis in 2011].
OBJECTIVE
To understand the comprehensive capability of helminth detection among professionals at different level of parasitic disease control institutions and promote the overall strength of diagnosis.


METHODS
Four professionals from each parasitic diseases control institutions were selected as contestant (age < 45 and at least two contestant from county-level institution). The content of contest included making stool slides with Kato-Katz method (five slides in thirty minutes, a total score of 15 and 9 as passing score) and identification of eleven common helminth eggs with microscopy (ten slides, five minutes per slide, a total score of 60, 36 as passing score).


RESULTS
The average score of making slides in 119 contestants from 30 provinces was 11.4, and 119 contestants passed accounted for 93.3%. The average score of film-reading was 22.0, and 20 contestants passed accounted for 16.8%. There were no statistically significant differences between the results in different gender, age (< or = 30, 31-40, > 40), job title (the junior, intermediate, and senior), institution level (provincial, municipal, and county level) (P > 0.05). By Kato-Katz slide-making and film-reading, the scores in contestants from provinces with schistosomiasis control task (12.1 +/- 1.7, 32.1 +/- 11.5, respectively) were better than contestants from other provinces (11.1 +/- 1.8, 18.1 +/- 10.5, respectively). The scores in contestants from western (18.4 +/- 11.4) were lower than those from eastern (25.2 +/- 12.4) and central (24.1 +/- 13.1) for film-reading.


CONCLUSIONS
The overall capability of parasitic disease examination is unbalanced among regions, and evidently there is a need to strengthen the capacity of pathogen detection in the disease control programs.
National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Key Laboratory of Parasite and Vector Biology, MOH, WHO Collaborating Centre for Malaria, Schistosomiasis and Filariasis, Shanghai 200025, China.
Li
L
Zhang
Shi-Zhu
SZ
Li
Yu
Y
Li
Qiang
Q
Wang
Qing
Q
Fu
Wei
W
Liu
Hong-Qing
HQ
Zhu
Jing
J
Xu
Ying-Dan
YD
Chen
Shao-Hong
SH
Chen
Jia-Xu
JX
Chen
Zhao
Z
Chen
Li-Ying
LY
Wang
Xiao-Nong
XN
Zhou
D000818:Animals; D002681:China; D006376:Helminths / Q000302:isolation & purification; D006801:Humans; D010270:Parasite Egg Count / Q000379:methods; D010272:Parasitic Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis*; D011314:Preventive Health Services; D011361:Professional Competence; D000078329:Workforce