ABSTRACT
Objective To survey on the prevalence of schistosomiasis among floating population in Zhejiang province. Methods A survey on prevalence of schistosomiasis among floating population was conducted from September to November 2008, and the stratified cluster sampling method was adopted in the survey. Totally 129 villages of 19 counties or districts were selected as survey sites, and 100 samples of migrants aged 6 to 65 from schistosomiasis-endemic areas were taken in each selected village. All selected individuals were surveyed by questionnaire and underwent serum indirect hemagglutination (IHA) test. For individuals with positive serum IHA testing the fecal examination was carried out to detect the eggs by nylon sedimentation method. SPSS 13.0 software was used for data processing. Results The number of migrants in survey sites was 3 357 420, among whom 303 219 were from schistosomiasis-endemic areas (9.03%).The positive rate in serum IHA test was 2.06% (286/13 898), 276 IHA-positives individuals received fecal examination, and 7 cases were positive (2.52%). Based on above data it was estimated that there would be potentially about 33 500 serum IHA-positive cases and 845 egg-positive cases among floating population in Zhejiang province. Conclusion The risk of schistosomiasis transmission still exists in Zhejiang province due to the infected migrants from endemic areas, and a surveillance system and quick response are required for prevention of re-emergence of the disease.