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One Health in ACTION... Controlling liver fluke infection - The Lawa model Liver fluke infection is a major public health problem in Northeast Thailand and its neighboring Mekong countries with over 10 million infected.  The infection is associated with a fatal cholangiocarcinoma and Thailand has been reported the highest incidence of this primary liver cancer in the world. Our group pioneered the introduction of integrated liver fluke (opisthorchiasis) control using an EcoHealth/One Health approach at Lawa Lake, a field research site where the disease is endemic. A program has been carried out for over 6 years using chemotherapy, novel intensive health education methods both in the communities and in schools, ecosystem monitoring and active community participation. As a result, the infection rate in the more than 10 villages surrounding the Lake has declined to less than 10% of the average of 60% as estimated by a baseline survey 6 years ago. Strikingly, the Cyprinoid fish species, which are the intermediate host, now showed less than 1% prevalence compared to a maximum of 70% during the baseline survey. This liver fluke control program, named “Lawa model,” is now recognized nationally and internationally. The Lawa village and its community hospital has become the training site for integrated liver fluke control for health personnel, community leaders, teachers, local governors, and volunteers  from all over northeastern and northern Thailand. The “Lawa model” is now being expanding to other parts of Thailand and neighboring Mekong countries.     Also please see attached Lawa Model PDF, i.e. “systems thinking behind this control model” and more intensive and update activities at these links: http://www.facebook.com/TDRLab Provided by: Banchob Sripa, PhD Professor & Chair, Tropical Medicine Graduate Program Tropical Disease Research Center Deprtment of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine Khon Kaen University, Khon Kaen 40002 THAILAND Tel: +66-43-363113, +66-43-202024 Fax: +66-43-204359 E-mail: banchob@kku.ac.th Website: http://tdr.kku.ac.th  Deputy Editor: PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases   TDR-KKU    Lawamodel Dr. Banchob Sripa is a Professor at the Department of Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Khon Kaen University, Thailand and holds a Head of WHO Collaborating Centre for Research and Control of Opisthorchiasis (Southeast Asian Liver Fluke Disease) – Tropical Disease Research Center  Khon Kaen University. He is the world expert in the pathology, pathogenesis and control of liver fluke infection and bile duct cancer. Dr.Sripa has published research articles, viewpoints, editorials and reviews for more than 180 in international journals, and sits on the Deputy Editor of PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases and editorial board of Infectious Diseases of Poverty (IDP). He has received several scientific awards including the recently the Outstanding Scientist Awards of Thailand (2013) and TRF Senior Research Scholar (2013). Dr.Sripa is a panel member on the WHO’s International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) panel of experts for biological agents of cancer, Disease Reference Group on Helminths (DRG), Foodborne Disease Burden Epidemiology Reference Group (FERG), and ex-President of the Regional Network of Asian Schistosomiasis and Other Helminth Zoonoses (RNAS+). He is currently a coordinator of the Asian Neglected Tropical Disease Network (NTDASIA).