Yang LINSHENG, Institute of Geographical Sciences and Natural Resources Research, Chinese Academy of Sciences, China
Kashin-Beck disease is an endemic, chronic, multiple and osteoarthrosis deformans endemica. The disease occurs mainly among children and has a very high disability rate, through affecting the articular cartilage and epiphyseal plate cartilage during the children's growing period. In China, Kaschin-Beck disease mainly locates in agricultural areas and semi-agricultural-and-pastoral areas. In Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, over than 30% of the 201 counties have Kaschin-Beck disease. According to the investigation in 2018, there are 358900 people covering 479 villages in Tibet suffering from Kaschin-Beck disease, of which, more than 80% are living in Qamdo region.
The prevalence of Kashin-Beck disease is related to slope, terrain and most importantly selenium deficiency in the natural environment. According our field investigation, the selenium in disease areas are very low, and the concentration in the major stable food is between 7.38 µg/kg - 9.07 µg/kg, which is severely lower than the suggested healthy threshold for stable food in China (25µg/kg). Since 2000, the government initiated ecological construction measures such as poverty alleviation and returning farmland to forests and grasslands, which have alleviated the disease through improvement of the dietary structure and selenium level. From 2000 to 2006, the X-ray detection rate for Kashin-Beck disease among children aged 7-12 years decreased from 37.86% to 10%, and the rate stablely decreased to 3% in 2014. Between 2018 and 2020, there is no case among children, indicating the big success for the Kashin-Beck disease prevention and control actions.
Mots clés :
A104266YL