The epidemic characteristics and changing trend of hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome in Hubei Province, China

Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is caused by different hantaviruses within the Bunyaviridae family. HFRS is a fulminant, infectious disease that occurs worldwide and is endemic in all 31 provinces of China. Since the first HFRS case in Hubei Province was reported in 1957, the disease ha...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2014-03, Vol.9 (3), p.e92700-e92700
Main Authors: Zhang, Yi-Hui, Ge, Liang, Liu, Li, Huo, Xi-Xiang, Xiong, Hai-Rong, Liu, Yuan-Yuan, Liu, Dong-Ying, Luo, Fan, Li, Jin-Lin, Ling, Jia-Xin, Chen, Wen, Liu, Jing, Hou, Wei, Zhang, Yun, Fan, Hong, Yang, Zhan-Qiu
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Biology and Life Sciences
China - epidemiology
Cluster Analysis
Clustering
Communicable diseases
Disease control
Disease prevention
Disease transmission
Epidemics
Fever
Geography
Hantaan virus
Health aspects
Hemorrhage
Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome
Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome - epidemiology
Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome - history
Hemorrhagic fevers
History, 20th Century
History, 21st Century
Humans
Incidence
Infections
Infectious diseases
Kidneys
Laboratories
Medicine
Medicine and Health Sciences
Seasonal distribution
Seasonal variations
Seasons
Spatial analysis
Spatial distribution
Spatio-Temporal Analysis
Statistical analysis
Surveillance
Temporal distribution
Urban areas
Virology
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Summary:Hemorrhagic fever with renal syndrome (HFRS) is caused by different hantaviruses within the Bunyaviridae family. HFRS is a fulminant, infectious disease that occurs worldwide and is endemic in all 31 provinces of China. Since the first HFRS case in Hubei Province was reported in 1957, the disease has spread across the province and Hubei has become one of the seriously affected areas in China with the greatest number of reported HFRS cases in the 1980's. However, the epidemic characteristics of HFRS in Hubei are still not entirely clear and long-term, systematic investigations of this epidemic area have been very limited. The spatiotemporal distribution of HFRS was investigated using data spanning the years 1980 to 2009. The annual HFRS incidence, fatality rate and seasonal incidence between 1980 and 2009 were calculated and plotted. GIS-based spatial analyses were conducted to detect the spatial distribution and seasonal pattern of HFRS. A spatial statistical analysis, using Kulldorff's spatial scan statistic, was performed to identify clustering of HFRS. A total of 104,467 HFRS cases were reported in Hubei Province between 1980 and 2009. Incidence of and mortality due to HFRS declined after the outbreak in 1980s and HFRS cases have been sporadic in recent years. The locations and scale of disease clusters have changed during the three decades. The seasonal epidemic pattern of HFRS was characterized by the shift from the unimodal type (autumn/winter peak) to the bimodal type. Socioeconomic development has great influence on the transmission of hantaviruses to humans and new epidemic characteristics have emerged in Hubei Province. It is necessary to reinforce preventative measures against HFRS according to the newly-presented seasonal variation and to intensify these efforts especially in the urban areas of Hubei Province.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0092700