From 2006 to 2015, China will grow 10.31 million mu (687,000 hectares) of woods specially for curbing blood fluke, a worm which causes snail fever, in the high-prevalence regions.

    Experts have found that some species of trees and plants, like poplar and knotweed, can prevent the spread of the freshwater snail, which is the intermediate host of the blood fluke, with their secretion of roots and decomposition of leaves.

    China has grown 5.16 million mu of such plants in wetlands since the 1980s, resulting in a significant drop in the density of freshwater snails.

    The State Forestry Administration has launched a program to grow woods to prevent snail fever, with initial spending of 100 million yuan (12.5 million U.S. dollars) allocated to 194 counties in seven provinces.

    Snail fever has affected 200 million people in China and the total affected population worldwide is 600 million.

    China has 12 high-prevalence provinces and regions of snail fever south of the Yangtze River. Records of the disease date back more than 2,100 years.

    A wasting disease causing blood loss and tissue damage, snail fever has been hard to control in the past owing to poor waste treatment in fields, rural latrines, and fishing boats and waters.

    By the end of last year, China had spent 19.5 billion yuan (2.4billion U.S. dollars) renovating rural toilets, according to the Ministry of Health.

    Chinese doctors have also made a breakthrough in cutting the diagnosis time of snail fever from up to three days to 10 minutes.