Article Source: Ta Kung Pao 07/12/2011 A16
Writer: Yuan Xiuxian

It is estimated that Guangdong has a population of 6 million people infected with clonorchiasis. Professor Yu Xinbing from Zhongshan Medical School, Sun Yat-sen University said today that the research group led by him had independently completed the first gene sequencing of hermaphrodite parasitic liver fluke and discovered four genes that were closely related with hepatic fibrosis. They would continue to search for the pathogenesis by further study in order to prevent the spreading of clonorchiasis.

Yu Xinbing said, clonorchiasis is the most important foodborne parasitic disease in China right now, which was listed as a specially prevented disease by Ministry of Health in 2005 and one of the three local diseases that required special prevention in Guangdong Province. The sampling investigations conducted by relevant departments in Jiangmen, Zhongshan, Heyuan and other six general clonorchiasis prevention and treatment demonstration zones in Guangdong Province show that the morbidity of clonorchiasis is increasing. It is estimated that 6 million people are infected with clonorchiasis at present. Yu Xinbing said the research group had found 35 disease causing genes while four of them were closely related with hepatic fibrosis.

'The main reason for people in Guangdong being infected with clonorchiasis is that people favor fresh food and they prefer uncooked fish and shrimp. In the 80s and 90s, raw fish eaters were mostly merchants. However, more and more people eat raw fish as the economy develops in mainland China, a phenomenon that raise the number of clonorchiasis patients', Yu Xinbing explained.