Pathways to improved, sustainable morbidity control and prevention of schistosomiasis in the People's Republic of China.

6亿中国人感染了寄生虫。其中最重要的一种是亚洲或东方的人类血吸虫，日本血吸虫。它会引起血吸虫病，这是一种非常严重的、使人衰弱的疾病，也是生活在中国南部的4000多万中国人的主要健康问题。当人们接触被淡水蜗牛释放的微小尾虫幼虫污染的水时，就会发生感染。与人类一样，日本血吸虫也会感染其他一些哺乳动物，如水牛，这使得控制工作变得更加复杂。目前的控制是基于药物吡喹酮的治疗。疫苗与其他控制方法相结合，包括使用新药，才能使消除这种疾病成为可能。这一新的研究计划非常重视相互的研究培训和科学互动，这将：确定另一种药物蒿甲醚是否可以用作控制的辅助药物；增加我们对血吸虫病发生发展所涉及的免疫学和遗传学过程的了解；确定水牛感染在维持人类血吸虫病传播中的重要性；对现有的和新发现的有望用作新疫苗和诊断的日本血吸虫分子进行基因组学和后基因组学研究；并开发一个数学模型，可以预测中国血吸虫病持续控制的最佳方法。

600 million Chinese are infected with parasites. One of the most important of these is the Asia or Oriental human bloodfluke, Schistosoma japonicum. It causes schistosomiasis (Bilharzia), a very serious and debilitating disease and a major health problem for more than 40 million Chinese living in Southern China. Infection occurs when people make contact with water contaminated by microscopically small cercariae larvae that are released from freshwater snails. As well as humans, Schistosoma japonicum infects a number of other mammals, such as water buffaloes, which complicates control efforts. Current control is based on treatment with the drug parziquantel. Vaccines in combination with other control methods, including the use of new drugs, are needed to make elimination of the disease possible. This new program of research has a very strong emphasis on mutual research training and scientific interaction that will: determine whether another drug, artemether, can be used as an aid in control; increase our understanding of the immunological and genetic processes involved in the development of the disease of schistosomiasis; determine the importance of buffalo infections in maintaining human schistosomiasis transmission; undertake genomics and post-genomics research on existing and new discovered S. japonicum molecules that are candidates as new vaccines and diagnostics; and develop a mathematical model that can predict the optimum methods for the sustained control of schistosomiasis in China.