China has set a target to curb snail fever in the next four years.

Officials say the country is expected to see few outbreaks of the epidemic by the end of 2008.

The goal was unveiled in a working guideline, jointly released by six administrations: The Ministry of Health, National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Water Resources, State Forestry Administration and Ministry of Finance.

Carried by freshwater snails, acute snail fever, or schistosomiasis, is a parasitic disease that attacks humans' blood and liver.

It can be fatal over time. Chronic patients, who account for most who contract the disease, experience high fever, weakness of the limbs and severe stiffness of the joints.

The focus of the guidelines is to decrease the infection rate among human beings and animals and to effectively control the disease in all infected areas.

Officials are seeking reductions of the rate of the disease among residents and poultry in infected areas to 5 percent and 3 percent respectively by the end of 2008.

For southwest China's Yunnan and Sichuan provinces, where the disease can be found mostly in mountain areas, emphasis must be given to snail-infested grounds and how to prevent infection by tainted irrigation water.

Forty three counties in seven provinces have failed to control the disease and some 38 counties previously free of the illness have seen it expanding.

Snail fever was effectively controlled before the 1980s in the world's most populous country.

However, dramatic changes in biological, natural and economical factors have caused a resurgence in recent years. More than 843,000 Chinese were infected with snail fever last year, up from 2002.

(China Daily November 8, 2004)