[Evaluation of intervention strategy and measures on the control of intestinal parasitic infections]

To evaluate the effect of intervention strategy and measures for intestinal parasite control in Zhejiang Province.

The protective rate (PR) and the index of effectiveness (IE) on the overall prevalence of parasites after and before interventions for intestinal parasitic infections were compared in 30 villages of 10 counties randomly selected as investigation spots.

After the implementation of the interventions in the past decade, the total parasite prevalence declined significantly from 77.0% in 1989 to 22.84% in 1998 in the Province, the PR was 70.34%, the IE was 3.37. In each of the 10 counties, the PR was above 45%, the IE was between 1.85 and 14.47. Lavatory improvement, socioeconomic development and health education were among the first three factors that affected the effectiveness of the intervention.

The comprehensive intervention combining the socioeconomic development, health education, environmental improvement with mass chemotherapy has been proved an effective strategy.