© с сайта ТГУ TOMSK, Jul 11 - RIA Tomsk. Scientists of Tomsk State Universityiversity (TSU) and Siberian State
Medical University (SSMU) are studying the distribution of opisthorchiasis in
Siberia and on the results of research will form a model which will help
predict extent and ways of infection; scientists from Switzerland will join the
study, the press service of TSU reported on Thursday.
It is specified that the Tomsk region - is one of the
main centers of opisthorchiasis in Eurasia. This is due to the high
contamination of fish in the rivers of the Ob-Irtysh basin. Fish is
traditionally included in the diet of Siberians, hence the infection of the
population. According to statistics, over a thousand new cases of the disease
are registered in the Tomsk region every year, more than a quarter of which are
- in children.
"The objects of the comprehensive study will be
people; mollusks - as intermediate hosts; fish from the carp family - as the
main source of infection; wild and domestic animals. Data on all links in the
chain through which the causative agent of a dangerous parasitic disease is
transmitted will help regulate the situation - to develop preventive measures
for protection of the population from the traditional Siberian disease", -
is said in the statement.
It is added that colleagues from Swiss Tropical and
Public Health Institute (a subsidiary of University of Basel), with which
Siberian State Medical University cooperates, will help Tomsk scientists to
trace the entire chain of transmission of the causative agent. Earlier, the
Swiss have studied the incidence of opisthorchiasis among residents of
Thailand, Laos and other southeastern countries.
"The data obtained by biologists and physicians
during the joint research will be the basis for the information model. It will
allow, firstly, to predict the scale and ways of spreading invasion, secondly,
to develop preventive measures that will help protect the population from a
parasitic disease", - reports the press service.
According to the press service, the discovery of the
causative agent of opisthorchiasis - the cat fluke (flat helminth from 10 to 12
millimeters long) - belongs to the professor of the Imperial Tomsk University
Konstantin Vinogradov: in 1891 conducting a pathological autopsy, the scientist
for the first time in history found a fluke in a liver of a man, extracted it
and made a description.