[Surveillance and risk assessment system of schistosomiasis in Jiangsu Province. II. Surveillance pattern and effect of Oncomelania hupensis snail status in Dongtai City, Jiangsu Province].

OBJECTIVE: To explore the method of Oncomelania hupensis snail surveillance in transmission-interrupted regions of schistosomiasis, so as to provide a new pattern for the surveillance of snail status in the transmission-interrupted areas. METHODS: In Dongtai County, north of Jiangsu Province where the transmission of schistosomiasis was interrupted, the surveillance of snail status was performed by means of the village-level general survey, village-level sampling survey, snail survey in key settings of township and county, and snail reporting by residents. In addition, quality-control snail sites were set up for quality control. The effectiveness and cost of the four methods of snail surveillance was compared. RESULTS: A total of 163 079 settings and 22 785.62 hm2 were surveyed in Dongtai County from 2008 to 2013, and 89 residual snail breeding sites were found, with a snail area of 1.48 hm2. The patterns of village-level general survey, village-level sampling survey, and snail survey in key settings of township and county were employed for investigation of 94 550, 45 033 and 23 496 settings, consisting of 57.98%, 27.61% and 14.41% of total settings, and 2, 0 and 6 settings were found with snails, with 0.021/thousand, 0, and 0.255/thousand detection rates of settings with snail breading sites, respectively. The pattern of snail survey in key settings of township and county was more effective than that of village-level survey to detect-snail breeding sites (χ2 = 19.158, P = 0). The recovery rate of quality-control snail breeding sites was 52.56%, 38.27% and 73.62% for the three patterns of snail survey, respectively, and the pattern of snail survey in key settings of township and county showed a higher quality for snail survey than that of village-level survey (χ2 = 111.597 and 85.991, both P = 0). During the period from 2008 to 2013, 289 person-times reported 279 suspected snail habitats and 1 501 living snails, and no Oncomelania snails were found. During the 6-year period, there were 1617.5, 964.7 and 527.7 thousand RMB invested for village-level general survey, village-level sampling survey, and snail survey in key settings of township and county, and the cost of snail survey per hm2 was 129.88, 133.6 and 162.57 RMB/hm2, respectively. The cost of village-level general survey and snail survey in key settings of township and county to detect a snail-breeding site was 808 800 and 88 000 RMB, respectively (t = 12.850, P = 0.000), and the cost of snail survey in key settings of township and county was 10.88% of that of village-level general survey. CONCLUSION: The snail survey in key settings of township and county is a highly effective and high-quality method for snail surveillance, which miay serve as a prior way for the surveillance of snail status in the transmission-interrupted areas of schistosomiasis.

[Survey of Toxoplasma gondii infection among pregnant women in Jiangsu Province, China].

OBJECTIVE: To understand the situation of Toxoplasma gondii infection among pregnant women in Jiangsu Province. METHODS: The pregnant women from 7 cities in Jiangsu Province were involved in this survey and the information was recorded according to the request of unified admission information of the case questionnaire of toxoplasmosis in Jiangsu Province. The specific antibodies IgM and IgG to Toxoplasma gondii in sera of these pregnant women were tested by ELISA. RESULTS: The specific antibody IgM to Toxoplasma gondii of all the respondents was negative. The positive rate of IgG was 3.98% (43/1 081), which was little different from the control group's 2.27% (4/176), and every city shared a similar positive rate. The positive rate of IgG of early pregnant women was 3.78%, which was also not obviously different from the 4.17% appearing in mid and late pregnant women. The respondents who previously had pathological abortions did not show positive IgG. Only 1.84% (8/435) of pregnant women had had the examinations related to Toxoplasma gondii before this survey. CONCLUSIONS: The rate of Toxoplasma gondii infection is low among pregnant women in Jiangsu Province. The situations in different areas are not far from each other. We should enhance the peri-conception tests of Toxoplasma gondii and take prevention and treatment countermeasures based on corresponding objects, and also further strengthen the healthy education.

[Epidemic situation and control strategy of malaria in Yancheng City, Jiangsu Province].

OBJECTIVE: To understand the epidemiological characteristics and epidemic situation of malaria in Yancheng City, so as to provide the evidence for proposing the control strategy of malaria. METHODS: A retrospective investigation was employed. The epidemiological data of the definitely diagnosed malaria cases in Yancheng City from 2003 to 2011 were collected and analyzed for the epidemiological characteristics and epidemic situation of malaria. RESULTS: A total of 134 malaria cases were detected in 9 counties (cities, districts) of Yancheng City from 1993 to 2011, including 18 cases of local vivax malaria, 59 cases of imported vivax malaria, 56 cases of imported falciparum malaria and 1 cases of imported malariae malaria, which comprised 13.43%, 44.03%, 41.79% and 0.75% of the total cases, respectively. From 1993 to 2011, the total incidence of malaria was 0.3 per million to 2.9 per million, and the incidence of local malaria ranged between 0 and 0.6 per million, appearing low epidemic situation. Since 2006, no local malaria cases were detected for 6 successive years. A total of 56 cases of oversea imported falciparum malaria and 1 cases of imported malariae malaria were found from 2007 to 2011, and the number of imported falciparum malaria cases exhibited an increasing tendency year by year. The median interval from onset to treatment for these patients was 1 day, 58.96% of the patients went to clinic when they felt silk and the village clinic was their major choice for the first visit. All of the median intervals from onset to blood test, to diagnosis and to treatment were 4 days. CONCLUSIONS: The transmission of local malaria tends to be gradually eliminated in Yancheng City, and the oversea imported falciparum malaria cases obviously increase. Currently, the surveillance and control of imported malaria should be given a high priority.