Background The Regional Network for Asian Schistosomiasis and other Helminth Zoonoses (RNAS+) was launched 20 years ago, which has established close partnerships for counties endemic with Asian schistosomiasis and other helminthiasis, and provided an ideal regional platform for experts in the fields of control and research of parasitic diseases in Asian countries, as well as policy-making. As one of the initiating countries, China has provided significant techinal and financial supports to the regional network. This paper is to assess those contributions from China side to support the development of RNAS+.Methods An anonymous, web-based questionnaire was designed to acquire the relevant responses. The content included the basic information of respondents, China’s contributions, challenges and recommendation for the RNAS+’s development. Each participant was asked to indicate a score from 0 to 10 to assess the China’s contribution’s value, while “0” represented no contribution, and “10” was 100% contribution. The participants who leave E-mail address in the 2017 to 2019 RNAS+ annual workshops were enrolled. SPSS 20.0 was used for statistics analysis.Results A total of 71 participants enrolled, and 41 of them responded to the survey. Those were from Indonesia(n=8, 19.5%), China(n=7, 17.1%), Thailand(n=7, 17.1%), Cambodia(n=5, 12.2%), Philippines (n=4, 9.8%), Vietnam(n=3, 7.3%), Myanmar(n=2, 4.9%), Laos(n=1, 2.4%), and other 4 respondents (9.8%) were the international observers. Most of respondents are familiar with RNAS+ (34/41, 82.93%). According to the survey, China’s contribution is mainly responsible in the improving of capacity building, funding support, coordination, and cooperation programmes, and the average score of China’s contribution in the above four fields were 8.92, 8.64, 8.75, and 8.67, respectively. The overall assessment score is 8.81. The challenges of RNAS+ is lack sustainable funding and skills, and most of participants point out that they need China’s support continually.Conclusions This survey showed that China plays an important contribution in the development of RNAS+. This network-type organization on disease control and research can yet be regarded as a great potential pattern for China to enhance regional cooperation.

Background: The Regional Network for Asian Schistosomiasis and other Helminth Zoonoses (RNAS+) launched in 1998, has close partnerships with countries endemic for schistosomiasis and other helminthiasis. RNAS+ has provided an ideal regional platform for policy-making, control, and parasitic diseases research experts in Asian countries. China, one of the initiating countries, has provided significant technical and financial support to the regional network. Although Chinese institutions and other member countries provided great technical and resource support in RNAS+ development, China, and Chinese scientists or institutions’ contributions, have not been evaluated systematically. This study assessed Chinese contributions toward supporting RNAS+ development.Methods: An assessment research framework was planned to evaluate China’s contribution to RNAS+ in four aspects, including capacity building, funding support, coordination, and cooperation. An anonymous web-based questionnaire was designed to acquire respondents’ basic information, and information on China’s contributions, challenges, and recommendations for RNAS+ development. Each participant scored from 0 to 10 to assess China’s contribution: “0” no contribution, and “10” 100% contribution. Participants who included their e-mail address in the 2017 - 2019 RNAS+ annual workshops were invited to participate the assessment.Results: Of 71 participants enrolled, 41 responded to the survey, 37 (37/41, 90.24%) of whom were from RNAS+ member countries while the remaining 4 (4/41, 9.76%) were international observers. Most respondents (38/41, 92.68%) are familiar with RNAS+. Respondents reported that China’s contributions were mainly to improve capacity building, and provide funding support, coordination responsibility, and joint application of the cooperation program towards RNAS+ development. The average scores of China’s contributions in the above four fields were 8.92, 8.64, 8.75, and 8.67, respectively, with an overall assessment score of 8.81 (10 maximum score). The challenge of RNAS+ includes the lack of sustainable funding and skills, and most participants indicated their continual need of China’s support.Conclusions This survey showed that China plays an important role in the development of RNAS+. This network-type organization for disease control and research can yet be regarded as a great potential pattern for China to enhance regional cooperation. These findings can be used to promote future cooperation between China and other RNAS+ member countries.