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A DRUG-BASED INTERVENTION STUDY ON THE IMPORTANCE OF BUFFALOES FOR HUMAN SCHISTOSOMA JAPONICUM INFECTION AROUND POYANG LAKE, PEOPLE’S REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Schistosomiasis japonica is a zoonosis of major public health importance in southern China. We undertook a drug intervention to test the hypothesis that buffalo are major reservoirs for human infection in the marshlands/lake areas, where one million people are infected. We compared human and buffalo infection rates and intensity in an intervention village (Jishan), where humans and buffalo were treated with praziquantel, and a control village (Hexi), where only humans were treated, in the Poyang Lake region. Over the four-year study, human incidence in Jishan decreased but increased in Hexi. Adjustment of incidence by age, sex, water exposure, year, and village further confirmed the decreased human infection in Jishan. Chemotherapy for buffaloes resulted in a decrease in buffalo infection rates in Jishan, which coincided with the reduction in human infection rates there in the last two years of the study. Mathematical modeling predicted that buffalo are responsible for 75% of human transmission in Jishan.

Received July 18, 2005. Accepted for publication September 2, 2005.

Acknowledgments: We thank all staff at the Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Parasitic Diseases–Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention and other local provincial staff who assisted with the extensive field work.

Financial support: This study was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Tropical Medicine Research Center grant 1 P 50AI-39461) and a National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia and Wellcome Trust (United Kingdom) International Collaborative Research Grants Scheme Award. Darren Gray is a NHMRC Postgraduate Public Health Scholar.

Disclosure: None of the authors has any conflicts of interest.

^* Address correspondence to Donald P. McManus, Molecular Parasitology Laboratory, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, 300 Herston Road, Brisbane, Queensland 4006, Australia. E-mail: donM{at}qimr.edu.au

Authors’ addresses: Jiagang Guo, Guanghan Hu, and Zheng Feng, Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Centre for Disease Control and Prevention Chinese Academy of Preventive Medicine, 207 Rui Jin Er Lu, Shanghai 200005, People’s Republic of China. Yuesheng Li, Darren Gray, Donald P. McManus, and Gail M. Williams, Australian Centre for International and Tropical Health and Nutrition, University of Queensland and Queensland Institute of Medical Research, 300 Herston Road, Brisbane, Queensland 4029, Australia. An Ning and Honggen Chen, Jiangxi Provincial Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Nanchang, People’s Republic of China. George M. Davis, Department of Microbiology and Tropical Medicine, George Washington University Medical Center, Washington, DC 20037. Adrian C. Sleigh, National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, Australian National University, Canberra, Australian Capital Territory 0200, Australia.

Reprint requests: Donald P. McManus, Molecular Parasitology Laboratory, Queensland Institute of Medical Research, 300 Herston Road, Brisbane, Queensland 4006, Australia, Telephone: 61-7-3362-0401, Fax: 61-7-3362-0104, E-mail: donM{at}qimr.edu.au.

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