By the end of 2005, China is expected to be the first country in the world to completely eliminate lymphatic filariasis, a mosquito-borne disease, said an expert with Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention.

Sun Dejian, head of the national leading group on control of lymphatic filariasis with the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, said here Friday that the provinces of Jiangxi, Anhui and Hainan will receive inspection over lymphatic filariasis control this year. If they all pass the inspection, China will lead the world in controlling the disease, he said.

Sun is now heading a team of specialists for a week-long lymphatic filariasis inspection in east China's Jiangxi Province. The inspections of Anhui and Hainan will be followed this year.

Lymphatic filariasis, or LF, can result in the enlargement and disfigurement of the arms, legs and genitals, a complication known as elephantiasis.

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that some 120 million people in 80 tropical and subtropical countries worldwide carry the infection, which is spread by a microscopic parasitic worm, carried by mosquitoes, that invades the human lymphatic system.

The WHO adopted a resolution at its 50th world health conference in 1997 to wipe out LF globally by 2020.

LF used to run rampant in 16 Chinese provinces, autonomous regions and municipalities, with about 31 million people infected, acknowledged Sun. In Jiangxi Province, 2.1 million people from its75 counties are suffering from LF, with the youngest patient only 11 months old.

Sun noted that by adopting a method in 1956 of destroying the source of infection, China has been successful in spreading the use of oral hetrazan salt among people who have already had LF infection.

More than 900 counties in 13 provinces have eliminated lymphatic filariasis and passed the state-level inspection, said Sun, while pledging that greater efforts would be made to wipe out LF in the remaining provinces by late 2005.

After 2005, there will be only 300,000 chronic LF patients in China, and the country had decided to accept assessment by WHO specialists in 2007, said Sun.

Editor: Catherine