title: Assessment of the effect of treatment and assistance program on advanced patients with schistosomiasis japonica in China from 2009 to 2014.
abstract: Schistosomiasis is one of the most important zoonoses, threatening approximately 800 million people in 78 countries with a loss of 70 million disability-adjusted life years. Over the past six decades, China has made remarkable achievements in morbidity control, but disability and mortality control remains much to desire; thus, advanced schistosomiasis is a growing problem when on the road to schistosomiasis elimination. Since 2005, China has initiated a national treatment and assistance program to advanced patients, aiming to improve patients' symptoms and quality of life. Here, we conducted a two-phase study to evaluate the program's implementation and effect on advanced patients from 2009 to 2014 in Jiangxi Province, China. A total of 6425 advanced schistosomiasis cases were included in this study. For those having been treated and assisted (90.7 %), the cure or improvement rate was over 99.9 %, with 668 (11.5 %) cases having reached clinical cure and 5152 (88.4 %) cases' condition having improved, which can be partially reflected in the significant decline of the proportion of hepatomegaly (splenomegaly), the degree of liver fibrosis, ascites-related indicators (abdominal girth and frequency of shifting dullness), and portal hypertension-related indices (inner diameter of portal vein and frequency of subcutaneous varicose vein of abdominal wall). Besides, it was estimated to have saved 2004 years of life lost at total. Therefore, the government should continue support and increase input of treatment and assistance program so that this project can reach more patients, leading to consolidation of achievements of schistosomiasis control and contribution to schistosomiasis elimination.
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China.|Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Control, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China.
authors.forename: Langui
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: School of Public Health, Fudan University, Shanghai, China.
authors.forename: Xiaoying
authors.initials: X
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China.
authors.forename: Jianwei
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ren
authors.affiliation: Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China.
authors.forename: Zulu
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gao
authors.affiliation: Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China.
authors.forename: Yun
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.affiliation: Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China.
authors.forename: Huiqun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Xie
authors.affiliation: Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China.
authors.forename: Dong
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China.
authors.forename: Zhihong
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Gong
authors.affiliation: Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China.
authors.forename: Fei
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hu
authors.affiliation: Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China.
authors.forename: Hongyun
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Liu
authors.affiliation: Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China.
authors.forename: Yanhua
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.affiliation: Department of Parasitology, Zhongshan School of Medicine, Sun Yat-sen University, Guangzhou, China. wuzhd@mail.sysu.edu.cn.|Key Laboratory of Tropical Disease Control, Ministry of Education, Guangzhou, China. wuzhd@mail.sysu.edu.cn.
authors.forename: Zhongdao
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Wu
authors.affiliation: Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Nanchang, Jiangxi, China. 07046262@163.com.
authors.forename: An
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ning
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D002681:China; D005260:Female; D006529:Hepatomegaly / Q000469:parasitology; D006801:Humans; D008103:Liver Cirrhosis / Q000469:parasitology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011314:Preventive Health Services / Q000379:methods*; D015397:Program Evaluation / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D011788:Quality of Life; D012554:Schistosomiasis japonica / Q000188:drug therapy*; D013163:Splenomegaly / Q000469:parasitology; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D015047:Zoonoses / Q000188:drug therapy
keywords: Advanced schistosomiasis; China; Evaluation; Schistosoma japonicum; Treatment and assistance