In The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Shigui Yang and colleagues analysed the epidemiological profiles and trends of 45 infectious diseases in China and found ten diseases substantially increasing from 2004 to 2013. Notably, two neglected tropical diseases, namely echinococcosis and schistosomiasis, had large increases, with echinococcosis increasing most, with an annual percentage change of 24·0%, and schistosomiasis increasing by the sixth largest amount, at 10·5%. However, caution is warranted as the incidence of the reported cases of these two diseases from the national notifiable infectious disease report system could not be deduced.