TY - JOUR AU - Zhou, Yi-Biao AU - Liang, Song AU - Jiang, Qing-Wu PY - 2012 DA - 2012/12/03 TI - Factors impacting on progress towards elimination of transmission of schistosomiasis japonica in China JO - Parasites & Vectors SP - 275 VL - 5 IS - 1 AB - Over the past decades China has made a great stride in controlling schistosomiasis, eliminating transmission of Schistosoma japonicum in 5 provinces and remarkably reducing transmission intensities in the rest of the seven endemic provinces. Recently, an integrated control strategy, which focuses on interventions on humans and bovines, has been implemented throughout endemic areas in China. This strategy assumes that a reduction in transmission of S. japonicum from humans and bovines to the intermediate Oncomelania snail host would eventually block the transmission of this parasite, and has yielded effective results in some endemic areas. Yet the transmission of S. japonicum is relatively complicated – in addition to humans and bovines, more than 40 species of mammalians can serve as potential zoonotic reservoirs. Here, we caution that some factors – potential roles of other mammalian reservoirs and human movement in sustaining the transmission, low sensitivity/specificity of current diagnostic tools for infections, praziquantel treatment failures, changes in environmental and socio-economic factors such as flooding in key endemic areas - may pose great obstacles towards transmission interruption of the parasite. Assessing potential roles of these factors in the transmission and implications for current control strategies aiming at transmission interruption is needed. SN - 1756-3305 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/1756-3305-5-275 DO - 10.1186/1756-3305-5-275 ID - Zhou2012 ER -