Mountain-type zoonotic visceral leishmaniasis (MT-ZVL) remains endemic in China and has re-emerged in recent years, with its geographic distribution demonstrating signs of progressive expansion.

Drawing on 15 years of national surveillance data, this study demonstrates a clear resurgence after 2015, a shift in high-risk populations from scattered children to farmers and older adults, and eastward and northward expansion of transmission risk areas.

These findings provide evidence that control strategies should prioritize interventions targeting farmers and elderly-focused interventions, strengthen surveillance in newly affected counties, and implement geographically targeted vector and reservoir control measures.

Schistosomiasis represents a natural focal disease in which wild rodents function as critical reservoir hosts for Schistosoma japonicum transmission within specific endemic regions of China.

Implementation of a comprehensive 2-year One Health intervention package demonstrated a significant reduction in S. japonicum infection rates among wild rodents, declining from 69.15% to 22.09%, with intervention villages showing an 88.46% decrease in infection odds compared to control villages.

Integrating One Health intervention measures into schistosomiasis control programs could effectively reduce infection risk among environmental reservoir hosts and mitigate transmission risks to human populations.

Echinococcosis remains a critical public health challenge in western China. Conventional routine health education (RHE) strategies have consistently proven insufficient in achieving the sustained behavioral modifications necessary to reduce disease transmission and burden.

This study provides the first large-scale experimental evidence that a Smart Health Education Pillbox (SHEP) significantly enhances knowledge, corrects misconceptions, and improves practice conversion efficiency regarding echinococcosis control among dog owners in endemic pastoral areas. These findings demonstrate the substantial value of precise, automated health education tools in controlling zoonotic diseases.

The SHEP represents a scalable, precise health education tool that effectively bridges the knowledge-practice gap in resource-limited settings. Its demonstrated efficacy supports integration into national echinococcosis control programs as a cost-effective digital intervention that promotes sustainable behavior change and reduces zoonotic disease transmission.

Despite mass drug administration (MDA) programs in Zanzibar, schistosomiasis transmission persists due to behavioral gaps, and prior studies in sub-Saharan Africa consistently reveal significant knowledge-practice disparities where improved knowledge alone fails to translate into preventive behaviors.

We quantified that attitudes are a pivotal mediator, accounting for 68.35% of knowledge’s effect on schistosomiasis prevention practices among Zanzibari students. This finding, from a 2024 cross-sectional study on Pemba Island, shifts the focus from knowledge dissemination alone to attitude transformation as the central strategy for effective behavior change interventions.

Public health interventions must prioritize attitude transformation (mediated 68.35% of knowledge’s effect on practices) through education (e.g., peer role-playing) while concurrently improving WASH infrastructure, as attitudes are the critical pathway to behavior change in endemic communities.

Schistosoma mansoni (S. mansoni) is predominantly distributed across Africa, the Middle East, the Caribbean Islands, and South America, infecting approximately 54 million people annually. China is not an endemic region for schistosomiasis mansoni, and no cases of cerebral schistosomiasis mansoni have been previously documented.

This report documents the first imported case of cerebral schistosomiasis mansoni in China. We present the epidemiological investigation, distinctive clinical manifestations, diagnostic challenges including misdiagnosis and delayed diagnosis, and the critical role of pathogen detection in case confirmation.

With the continuous emergence of imported S. mansoni cases and the gradual expansion of intermediate host breeding grounds, active monitoring should be conducted for potential risks of local transmission within China. To prevent this disease from becoming endemic, CDCs and medical institutions must strengthen their diagnostic, treatment, and prevention capabilities, as well as their monitoring and early warning capacities for imported schistosomiasis mansoni.