A Knowledge Survey on Health Education of Echinococcosis Among Students - Ganzi Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, Sichuan Province, China, 2020.

What is already known about this topic?: Previous surveys have mainly focused on how well residents and primary school students have understood the core knowledge of echinococcosis control and are limited in terms of the comprehensiveness of the knowledge category and respondents. What is added by this report?: There were some shortcomings in related knowledge of echinococcosis among students, which showed a tendency to know methods but not the rationale. The differences among regions indicated a lack of a unified system for training educators and allocating comprehensive educational material. What are the implications for public health practices?: The results of this study provide evidence to potentially help improve health education programs in the new phase of echinococcosis prevention and control in China.

Prevalence and spatial distribution patterns of human echinococcosis at the township level in Sichuan Province, China.

BACKGROUND: Echinococcosis is a global zoonotic parasitic disease caused by Echinococcus larvae. This disease is highly endemic in Sichuan Province, China. This study investigates the prevalence and spatial distribution characteristics of human echinococcosis at the township level in Sichuan Province, geared towards providing a future reference for the development of precise prevention and control strategies. METHODS: Human prevalence of echinococcosis was evaluated using the B-ultrasonography diagnostic method in Sichuan Province between 2016 and 2019. All data were collected, collated, and analyzed. A spatial distribution map was drawn to intuitively analyze the spatial distribution features. Eventually, the spatial autocorrelation was specified and local indicators of spatial association (LISA) clustering map was drawn to investigate the spatial aggregation of echinococcosis at the township level in Sichuan Province. RESULTS: The prevalence of echinococcosis in humans of Sichuan Province was 0.462%, among which the occurrence of cystic echinococcosis (CE) was 0.221%, while that of alveolar echinococcosis (AE) was 0.244%. Based on the results of the spatial distribution map, a predominance of echinococcosis in humans decreased gradually from west to east and from north to south. The Global Moran's I index was 0.77 (Z = 32.07, P < 0.05), indicating that the prevalence of echinococcosis in humans was spatially clustered, exhibiting a significant spatial positive correlation. Further, the findings of local spatial autocorrelation analysis revealed that the "high-high" concentration areas were primarily located in some townships in the northwest of Sichuan Province. However, the "low-low" concentration areas were predominantly located in some townships in the southeast of Sichuan Province. CONCLUSIONS: Our findings demonstrated that the prevalence of echinococcosis in humans of Sichuan Province follows a downward trend, suggesting that the current prevention and control work has achieved substantial outcomes. Nevertheless, the prevalence in humans at the township level is widely distributed and differs significantly, with a clear clustering in space. Therefore, precise prevention and control strategies should be formulated for clusters, specifically strengthening the "high-high" clusters at the township level.