PMID- 24705352
OWN - NLM
STAT- MEDLINE
DCOM- 20141203
LR  - 20211021
IS  - 1932-6203 (Electronic)
IS  - 1932-6203 (Linking)
VI  - 9
IP  - 4
DP  - 2014
TI  - Establishing and applying a schistosomiasis early warning index (SEWI) in the 
      lower Yangtze River Region of Jiangsu Province, China.
PG  - e94012
LID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0094012 [doi]
LID - e94012
AB  - 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.
FAU - Yang, Kun
AU  - Yang K
AD  - Jiangsu Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Key Laboratory of Parasitic Disease 
      Control and Prevention (Ministry of Health), Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of 
      Parasite Molecular Biology, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.
FAU - Xu, Jun-Fang
AU  - Xu JF
AD  - Medicine school, Hubei University for Nationalities, Enshi, Hubei Province, 
      China.
FAU - Zhang, Jian-Feng
AU  - Zhang JF
AD  - Jiangsu Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Key Laboratory of Parasitic Disease 
      Control and Prevention (Ministry of Health), Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of 
      Parasite Molecular Biology, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.
FAU - Li, Wei
AU  - Li W
AD  - Jiangsu Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Key Laboratory of Parasitic Disease 
      Control and Prevention (Ministry of Health), Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of 
      Parasite Molecular Biology, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.
FAU - He, Jian
AU  - He J
AD  - Jiangsu Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Key Laboratory of Parasitic Disease 
      Control and Prevention (Ministry of Health), Jiangsu Provincial Key Laboratory of 
      Parasite Molecular Biology, Wuxi, Jiangsu Province, China.
FAU - Liang, Song
AU  - Liang S
AD  - Department of Environmental and Global Health, College of Public Health and 
      Health Professions, University of Florida, Gainesville, Florida, United States of 
      America; Emerging Pathogens Institute, University of Florida, Gainesville, 
      Florida, United States of America.
FAU - Bergquist, Robert
AU  - Bergquist R
AD  - Ingerod 407, Brastad, Sweden.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
PT  - Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't
DEP - 20140404
PL  - United States
TA  - PLoS One
JT  - PloS one
JID - 101285081
SB  - IM
MH  - China/epidemiology
MH  - Geography
MH  - Health Status Indicators
MH  - Humans
MH  - Meta-Analysis as Topic
MH  - Models, Statistical
MH  - Public Health Surveillance
MH  - Reproducibility of Results
MH  - *Rivers
MH  - Schistosomiasis/*epidemiology/*prevention & control/transmission
PMC - PMC3976384
COIS- Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.
EDAT- 2014/04/08 06:00
MHDA- 2014/12/15 06:00
PMCR- 2014/04/04
CRDT- 2014/04/08 06:00
PHST- 2013/09/13 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2014/03/12 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2014/04/08 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2014/04/08 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2014/12/15 06:00 [medline]
PHST- 2014/04/04 00:00 [pmc-release]
AID - PONE-D-13-38644 [pii]
AID - 10.1371/journal.pone.0094012 [doi]
PST - epublish
SO  - PLoS One. 2014 Apr 4;9(4):e94012. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0094012. eCollection 
      2014.