[Kala-azar in China from 1985 to 1988. Advisory Committee on Parasitic Diseases, MOPH].

A total of 1,069 newly discovered cases of kala-azar (a few recurrent cases included) is recorded in China during the four year period from 1985 to 1988. The kala-azar patients were found in the Provinces and Autonomous Regions of Gansu, Sichuan, Xinjiang, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Inner-Mongolia and Shandong. Comparing with the 443 cases recorded during the previous 4 years period 1981-1984, significant uprise of the disease is evident, especially in the Provinces of Gansu and Sichuan. In southern Gansu and northern Sichuan, the incidence of visceral leishmaniasis in dogs is consistently high and these places are considered as areas endemic to leishmaniasis of canine source. Phlebotomus chinensis naturally infected with promastigotes are found in the mountainous regions 2,200 m and 1,500 m above the sea level respectively, and the promastigotes are identified as Leishmania donovani. As kala-azar patients and dogs infected with visceral leishmaniasis are mostly in the area below 1,600 m sea level and the area above 2,000 m sea level is unpopulated, the natural infection of sandflies was thought, therefore, to come from wild animal hosts and the natural nidus of kala-azar there warrants further investigation. It is suggested that consolidation and surveillance should be emphasized in endemic areas where leishmaniasis control has been very successful and research projects encouraged to meet the technical need for further achievement.