Ming-gang Chen

“ Numerous farms raising cattle, sheep, goats, or pigs were closed as most, or all, of the domestic mammals died in the 1950s and 1960s in Hunan, Jiangxi, and Anhui provinces, mainly due to acute or heavy infection of the disease, which resulted in high economic loss in animal husbandry [24] , [27] , [90] . In marshland and lake regions of the endemic areas in China, animal reservoirs, mainly domestic mammals, are more important sources of the infection than humans in terms of the disease transmission. ”

“ Chronic schistosomiasis
S. japonicum infected subjects may be symptomless. People in endemic areas with comparatively smaller chances of contact with infested water, and those with the infection and incomplete treatment, may enter the chronic phase. Most subjects with the infection in the endemic areas are chronic cases. Some are symptomless and some are slightly symptomatic, and the impact to their working ability is usually not significant. If not treated in time, the disease may become advanced causing higher morbidity, but some patients may be latent all their life. ”

“ Clinical disease is mainly seen in the acute and advanced phases and a number of photos are presenting showing historical morbidity. Nowadays the number of acute and advanced schistosomiasis is much less than it was before. Animal reservoir is a problem for S. japonicum in China which increases the complicity in the epidemiology and control of the disease both to humans and animal husbandry. However, the prevalence in domestic animals is under effective control. ”

“ In the special hospitals for schistosomiasis with 50 to 100 beds in heavily endemic areas, dozens of ascetic patients could be found, as shown by Figures 6 and 7, which were taken in small hospitals in 1959 in the Guichi County, Anhui Province, and in 1965 in Changshu County, Jiangsu Province, respectively. The collective photos of advanced cases with ascites could only be taken in the earlier phase of the national control program, i.e., in the 1950s until the 1970s, and, thanks to the intensive control program, after 1980, the number of ascetic patients significantly decreased. ”

“ The prevalence of schistosome infection in cattle and buffaloes based on fecal examination in the three national surveys is provided with comparative human prevalence from the same surveys as references [31] - [33] . As a whole, the prevalence in bovine is usually higher than in humans. A nationwide survey conducted in China in 2011 on the infection of S. japonicum in domestic animals in seven endemic provinces showed a further significant reduction. ”

“ In a retrospective review in 1984 on mortality due to all malignancies in seven S. japonicum endemic counties in the Jiangsu Province, it was shown that the prevalence rate of schistosomiasis and the mortality rate due to colorectal cancer increased in parallel [62] , and persons with schistosomiasis had a significantly higher mortality rate due to colorectal cancer than those without [63] . ”

“ According to the case reporting system for infectious diseases collected by the Ministry of Health, the number of infected subjects was calculated to be 286,836 in 2011, a 97.1% decrease [29] . The number of acute cases and advanced cases, sensitive indices for morbidity estimation of schistosomiasis, fluctuated to around 10,000 (from several thousand to 14,000) yearly and was estimated to be one million, respectively, in the 1950s [24] . ”

“ Early in this century, a few human clinical cases of a new species of Schistosoma, i.e., Schistosoma nanjingi, were reported with the discovery of eggs both in the feces and the urine of human hosts, and were restricted to limited endemic areas close to Nanjing City, Jiangsu Province [6] . ”

“ In cases of intestinal cancer associated with schistosomiasis, the locality of the cancer was predominately seen in the rectum, as was also reported in Japan [64] , followed by the sigmoid colon, and finally in the other part of the colon, while cancer in the small intestine was a rarity which coincides with relative distribution of S. japonicum eggs in the intestine of man [44] , [58] , [65] - [66] . ”

“ Conducting autopsies in deceased patients who had diseases other than schistosomiasis, schistosome eggs and egg granulomas were found in the tissues of a number of corpses without histories of identification of schistosomiasis and anti-schistosome treatment during their lifetimes [22] . ”

“ The pathological changes in the brain are local reactions in response to the presence of eggs, and, although ectopic parasitism of the adult worms in the cerebral vessels has been suggested, up until now, no worm has ever been found in specimens of the human brain. ”

“ Epileptic seizures usually with granulomatous lesions in the brain are the main clinical manifestations of the cerebral disease in the chronic phase. Symptoms common with brain tumors such as headaches, disturbance of speech, and paralysis often develop. ”

“ Megalosplenia is another form of advanced schistosomiasis quite commonly seen in the 1950s and 1960s. Persons usually have a very large spleen and hypersplenism. The enlarged spleen may be palpated across the level of umbilicus or abdominal midline, i.e., ≧3 in Hackett size, as shown in Figure 10. ”

“ Foxes and rabbits the village roam; weeds only fill the rooms” [25] . “Died are thousands of villages, crying and singing are only ghosts.” The situation was vividly described in the famous poem, Farewell, God of Plague, written in 1958 by Mao Zedong, late chairman of the Chinese Central Government. Mao wrote the poem knowing about the epidemic situation of schistosomiasis before the 1950s. ”

“ Shanghai Publishing House for Sciences and Technology Anonymous. Bureau of Endemic Disease Control, Ministry of Health, 2001 ↑ Nakashima, T; Okuda, K; Kojiro, M; Sakamoto, K; Kubo, Y & Shimokawa, Y (1975) , “Primary liver cancer coincident with schistosomiasis japonica. ”

“ Wang, JP; et al. (1981) , “Analysis of 62 cases of acute schistosomiasis japonica treated with praziquantel or amoscanate”, Acta Acad Med Sin 3 (suppl) : 52–55 ChenMGFuSYangJSWangJSWangMJZhuPJChengAGWangJPTaoCGLiuBLShenSB ↑ Wang, KC (1962) , “Adult worms of Asiatic Schistosoma in lung of acute schistosomiasis case”, Chin Med J 3 (6) : 398–402 WangKC ↑ Yu, BR; Xiao, X; Zhuang, WH; Zhang, RY & Yang, GY (1986) , “Postmortem pathological observation on two cases with acute schistosomiasis”, Acta Jiangxi Med Coll 3 (2) : 13–17 YuBRXiaoXZhuangWHZhangRYYangGY 1 2 Zheng, JS ”