Instructions on Printing and Distributing Xu Yunbei’s¹ Report on Eliminating Schistosomiasis
(April 20, 1956)

Comrade Xiaoping:²
Please print five hundred copies or more of this document³ and distribute it to senior cadres inside and outside the Party and to the provincial Party secretaries arriving in Beijing on the 25th.

· · · Mao Zedong
April 20

Printed based on the manuscript.

**Notes**
Increase funding for the prevention and treatment of schistosomiasis. The report also includes a set of proven prescriptions from traditional Chinese medicine and herbal medicine for treating schistosomiasis. When Mao Zedong approved the distribution of this report, he also added the title "Report on the Issue of Eliminating Schistosomiasis" and a note beneath the title: "(This is a report by Vice Minister of Health Xu Yunbei to the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on April 18, 1956, and is worth reading by everyone. Note by the General Office of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China.)"

--- Notes

¹ Xu Yunbei, then serving as Vice Minister of Health.
² Xiaoping, namely Deng Xiaoping, then serving as Secretary-General of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and Vice Premier of the State Council.
³ Refers to Xu Yunbei’s report to the Central Committee on April 18, 1956, regarding the elimination of schistosomiasis. The report states that in March of this year, the Second National Conference on Schistosomiasis Prevention and Control was held in Shanghai, attended by Party and government representatives from fourteen provinces and municipalities. The conference unanimously held that schistosomiasis is widespread in our country and causes extremely deep harm, not only damaging the lives and property of the broad masses of the people but also seriously affecting the development of national construction and the future of the entire nation. To eliminate schistosomiasis nationwide, it is essential to: 1. Strengthen Party leadership, which is the key to the issue; 2. Fully mobilize the masses; 3. Strengthen the organization and leadership of scientific research; 4. £·