‘Snail’s Disease’ Makes Comeback in Rural China
A rising epidemic of schistosomiasis, a parasite-caused disease that attacks major organs and the nervous system, has struck more than 1 million people across southern China, a news report said Saturday.
The provinces of Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui and Jiangsu have been particularly hard hit, especially in areas surrounding major rivers and lakes, it said.
Officials from the Ministry of Public Health blamed a cutback in funds and research for the return of so-called snail’s disease, which had been virtually wiped out in China, the semiofficial China News Service said.
A chronic, usually tropical disease, schistosomiasis is contracted by washing or swimming in water containing snails, which are host to the embryonic stage of a parasite. The parasites pass through the human skin and attack major organs.
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