China's Ministry of Health issued a 10-Year Plan to fight parasitic diseases on Thursday, vowing to reduce the infection rate by 40 percent in 2010 and 60 percent in 2015.

The plan aims to reduce the spread of major parasitic diseases including geohelminthes, echinococcosis, chonorchis, tapeworm disease and cysticercosis and prevent new infections of the kala-azar disease.

The plan was drawn up to promote the progress in the prevention and control of parasitic disease, protect the health of people and boost the coordinated development of economy and society, the ministry said.

The plan maps out detailed goals for the prevention of geohelminthes, echinococcosis and chonorchis and policies and measures to fight these diseases.

It also introduces a set of standards regarding the percentage of parasitic disease knowledge the public should have, healthy standards of living, toilet sanitation and increase in the number of qualified medical workers.

According to a survey completed by the ministry in 2004 on the status of major human parasitic diseases in China the country has 19.56 percent of geohelminthes infections and 21.38 percent of worm infections. This equals the infection rate of Japan in the 1960s and ROK in the 1980s.

Based on the survey, the ministry estimates that about 129 million Chinese are infected with geohelminthes, 12.49 million with chonorchis, 550,000 with tapeworm and 380,000 with echinococcosis.

(Xinhua News Agency March 31, 2006)