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Tibet wages war against plateau parasite

Xinhua, August 23, 2016 Adjust font size:

Medical workers from across China will carry out a survey in Tibet in an effort to control echinococcosis, also known as hydatid disease, a fatal parasitic tapeworm disease affecting China's herding communities.

A total of 920 doctors and medical workers, including 624 from Tibet and 296 from the rest of the country, will be sent to 364 villages in 70 counties and districts of Tibet by the end of this month, according to Li Bin, deputy director of the regional disease control and prevention center.

Some 72,800 people will be covered by the scheme. The field investigation will be finished within a month, and the investigators will spend two to three months creating an investigation report and treatment plan. "Hopefully the treatment can begin by the end of this year," Li said.

Hydatid disease mainly affects herding areas in China's Gansu, Inner Mongolia, Ningxia, Qinghai, Sichuan, Tibet and Xinjiang. As of 2012, about 50 million lived in areas where the disease is prevalent. The government aims to control the disease by 2020.

Tibet started fighting the disease in 2007. From 2011 to 2015, more than 700 poor patients in the region received surgery. Endi