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Establishing and Applying a Schistosomiasis Early Warning Index (SEWI) in the Lower Yangtze River Region of Jiangsu Province, China

BACKGROUND: China has made remarkable progress in schistosomiasis control over the past decades. Transmission control has replaced morbidity control as the country moves towards the goal of elimination and the current challenge is to find a sensitive measure capable of gauging transmission risk in l...

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Autores principales: Yang, Kun, Xu, Jun-Fang, Zhang, Jian-Feng, Li, Wei, He, Jian, Liang, Song, Bergquist, Robert
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2014
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3976384/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24705352
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0094012
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author Yang, Kun
Xu, Jun-Fang
Zhang, Jian-Feng
Li, Wei
He, Jian
Liang, Song
Bergquist, Robert
author_facet Yang, Kun
Xu, Jun-Fang
Zhang, Jian-Feng
Li, Wei
He, Jian
Liang, Song
Bergquist, Robert
author_sort Yang, Kun
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: China has made remarkable progress in schistosomiasis control over the past decades. Transmission control has replaced morbidity control as the country moves towards the goal of elimination and the current challenge is to find a sensitive measure capable of gauging transmission risk in low-prevalence areas. The study aims to develop a Schistosomiasis Early Warning Index (SEWI) and demonstrate its use in Jiangsu Province along the lower Yangtze River. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The Delphi approach, a structured communication technique, was used to develop the SEWI. Two rounds of interviews with 30 public health experts specialized in schistosomiasis control were conducted using 40 indicators that reflected different aspects of schistosomiasis transmission and control. The necessity, feasibility, and sensitivity of each indicator were assessed and the weight value of each indicator determined based on these experts' judgment. The system included 3 first-order indicators, 7 second-order indicators, and 30 third-order indicators. The 3 first-order indicators were endemic status, control measures, social and environmental factors, with the weight values 0.366, 0.343 and 0.291, respectively. For the 7 second-order indicators, the highest weight value was for control measures for snails (0.175) and the lowest for transmission route (0.110). We estimated and mapped the SEWI for endemic areas at the county scale in Jiangsu Province finding that the majority of the endemic areas were characterized as medium transmission risk (SEWI risk values between 0.3 and 0.6), while areas where transmission interruption had been officially declared showed SEWI values <0.30. A few isolated areas (e.g. endemic islands in the Yangtze River) produced SEWI values >0.60. These estimates are largely in agreement with the endemicity levels based on recent epidemiological surveys. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The SEWI should be useful for estimation of schistosomiasis transmission surveillance, particularly with reference to the elimination of the disease in China.
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spelling pubmed-39763842014-04-08 Establishing and Applying a Schistosomiasis Early Warning Index (SEWI) in the Lower Yangtze River Region of Jiangsu Province, China Yang, Kun Xu, Jun-Fang Zhang, Jian-Feng Li, Wei He, Jian Liang, Song Bergquist, Robert PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: China has made remarkable progress in schistosomiasis control over the past decades. Transmission control has replaced morbidity control as the country moves towards the goal of elimination and the current challenge is to find a sensitive measure capable of gauging transmission risk in low-prevalence areas. The study aims to develop a Schistosomiasis Early Warning Index (SEWI) and demonstrate its use in Jiangsu Province along the lower Yangtze River. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: The Delphi approach, a structured communication technique, was used to develop the SEWI. Two rounds of interviews with 30 public health experts specialized in schistosomiasis control were conducted using 40 indicators that reflected different aspects of schistosomiasis transmission and control. The necessity, feasibility, and sensitivity of each indicator were assessed and the weight value of each indicator determined based on these experts' judgment. The system included 3 first-order indicators, 7 second-order indicators, and 30 third-order indicators. The 3 first-order indicators were endemic status, control measures, social and environmental factors, with the weight values 0.366, 0.343 and 0.291, respectively. For the 7 second-order indicators, the highest weight value was for control measures for snails (0.175) and the lowest for transmission route (0.110). We estimated and mapped the SEWI for endemic areas at the county scale in Jiangsu Province finding that the majority of the endemic areas were characterized as medium transmission risk (SEWI risk values between 0.3 and 0.6), while areas where transmission interruption had been officially declared showed SEWI values <0.30. A few isolated areas (e.g. endemic islands in the Yangtze River) produced SEWI values >0.60. These estimates are largely in agreement with the endemicity levels based on recent epidemiological surveys. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: The SEWI should be useful for estimation of schistosomiasis transmission surveillance, particularly with reference to the elimination of the disease in China. Public Library of Science 2014-04-04 /pmc/articles/PMC3976384/ /pubmed/24705352 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0094012 Text en © 2014 Yang et al http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Yang, Kun
Xu, Jun-Fang
Zhang, Jian-Feng
Li, Wei
He, Jian
Liang, Song
Bergquist, Robert
Establishing and Applying a Schistosomiasis Early Warning Index (SEWI) in the Lower Yangtze River Region of Jiangsu Province, China
title Establishing and Applying a Schistosomiasis Early Warning Index (SEWI) in the Lower Yangtze River Region of Jiangsu Province, China
title_full Establishing and Applying a Schistosomiasis Early Warning Index (SEWI) in the Lower Yangtze River Region of Jiangsu Province, China
title_fullStr Establishing and Applying a Schistosomiasis Early Warning Index (SEWI) in the Lower Yangtze River Region of Jiangsu Province, China
title_full_unstemmed Establishing and Applying a Schistosomiasis Early Warning Index (SEWI) in the Lower Yangtze River Region of Jiangsu Province, China
title_short Establishing and Applying a Schistosomiasis Early Warning Index (SEWI) in the Lower Yangtze River Region of Jiangsu Province, China
title_sort establishing and applying a schistosomiasis early warning index (sewi) in the lower yangtze river region of jiangsu province, china
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3976384/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24705352
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0094012
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