Objective: To understand the condition of the construction and management of sanitary latrines, and assess the effect of disposal of the excrement in rural schistosomiasis endemic areas in Yunnan Province.
Methods: Three villages with schistosomiasis endemic were selected from Eryuan County and 30 households per village were sampled randomly for the field survey. The stool samples were sampled and tested according to the national standard.
Results: Totally 90 latrines were surveyed. The popularity rates of sanitary latrines in Yongle, Qiandian and Xinzhuang villages were 83.19%, 83.12% and 81.63% respectively. In the 90 household latrines, only 32.22% located inside the courtyard, and 91.67% of sanitary latrines and 70.00% of non-sanitary latrines had integrated buildings. Maggots or pupae or adult flies were found in 33.33% of sanitary latrines and all of non-sanitary latrines with the average amounts of 1.05 and 3.40 per latrine respectively. The removal rate of fecal coliform, the sedimentation rate of parasitic eggs and the mortality rate of Ascaris eggs were 90.00%, 80.61% and 95.20% on average respectively. The qualified rate of the fecal coliform of the outlet of the sanitary latrines was 41.67%, and the qualified rate of the mortality rate of Ascaris eggs was 78.13%. No living schistosome eggs were found at the outlets of latrines. For the effect of non-hazardous treatment, there was a statistically significant difference between the sanitary latrines and non-sanitary latrines.
Conclusions: The latrine improvement has a good effect on non-hazardous treatment of the excrement in Yunnan Province, but the construction, application and management of sanitary latrines still need to be strengthened.