PUBLIC HEALTH AND PREVENTION STRATEGIES
Jongsuksuntigel et al. (1998), Liver Flukes and Malignancy, Naz'mov (2001)

The Faculty of Tropical Medicine of Mahidol University conducts the most notable Public Health strategy to prevent Opisthorchiasis. This national liver fluke control program is being operated in some central provinces, and all northeastern and northern provinces of Thailand.
This program for control is comprised of three aproaches:

1. Stool examination and treatment of positive cases with praziquantel for eliminating human host reservoir
2. Health education for a promotion of cooked fish consumption for preventing infection
3. Improvement of hygienic defecation for transmission interruption.

PREVENTION OF OPISTHORCHIASIS FOCUSES ON INTERRUPTING ITS LIFECYCLE

Prevention involves preventing fecal parasites from reaching the water supplies, decreasing snail hosts, and promoting adequate cooking methods for the second intermediate host fish.
Much of this involves educating the local people about the risks associated with liver fluke infection and what they can do to minimize them.
In Thailand, many indigenous people are constructing latrines, which greatly decreases the risk of fecal matter infected with eggs contaminating the water supply.
Elimination the first intermediate host, the snail, cannot be accomplished, as the chemicals required to kill the snails would harm the fish that people consume. Methods in Europe that use fast electron radiation to decontaminate caught fish are being implemented.
To simply eliminate the consumption of raw or improperly cooked fish would prevent human infection. Raw fish cuisine remains very pervasive in Asian cultures and it is unlikely that the tradition of eating raw fish will cease. People must be educated that though extremely effective treatment to eliminate the parasites exists, the risk of liver cancer increases by simply becoming infected with Opisthorchiasis.