Epidemiological analysis of respiratory and intestinal infectious diseases in three counties of Sichuan: the baseline survey of Disaster Mitigation Demonstration Area in western China

Zhiqiang Xue; Zhenbo Yang; Hui Sun; Jinghuan Ren; Mengzi Sun; Jiagen Li; Anning Zhang; Pingping Zheng; Pan Pan; Jing Dou; Li Shen; Yang Chen; Kexin Li; Tianyu Feng; Yaogai Lv; Chunli Bi; Lina Jin; Zhe Wang; Yan Yao

doi:10.7717/peerj.7341

Epidemiological analysis of respiratory and intestinal infectious diseases in three counties of Sichuan: the baseline survey of Disaster Mitigation Demonstration Area in western China

PeerJ. 2019 Jul 23:7:e7341. doi: 10.7717/peerj.7341. eCollection 2019.

Authors

Zhiqiang Xue¹, Zhenbo Yang², Hui Sun², Jinghuan Ren³, Mengzi Sun¹, Jiagen Li¹, Anning Zhang¹, Pingping Zheng¹, Pan Pan¹, Jing Dou¹, Li Shen¹, Yang Chen¹, Kexin Li¹, Tianyu Feng¹, Yaogai Lv¹, Chunli Bi¹, Lina Jin¹, Zhe Wang³, Yan Yao¹

Affiliations

¹ Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Jilin University, Changchun, China.
² UNICEF Office for China, BeiJing, China.
³ Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, BeiJing, China.

Abstract

Background: Natural disasters can indirectly induce epidemics of infectious diseases through air and water pollution, accelerated pathogen reproduction, and population migration. This study aimed to explore the epidemiological characteristics of the main infectious diseases in Sichuan, a province with a high frequency of natural disasters.

Methods: Data were collected from the local Centers for Disease Control infectious disease reports from Lu, Shifang and Yuexi counties from 2011 to 2015 and from the baseline survey of the Disaster Mitigation Demonstration Area in Western China in 2016. Principal component regression was used to explore the main influencing factors of respiratory infectious diseases (RIDs).

Results: The incidence rates of RIDs and intestinal infectious diseases (IIDs) in 2015 were 78.99/100,000, 125.53/100,000, 190.32/100,000 and 51.70/100,000, 206.00/100,000, 69.16/100,000 in Lu, Shifang and Yuexi respectively. The incidence rates of pulmonary tuberculosis (TB) was the highest among RIDs in the three counties. The main IIDs in Lu and Shifang were hand-foot-mouth disease (HFMD) and other infectious diarrhea; however, the main IIDs in Yuexi was bacillary dysentery. The proportions of illiterate and ethnic minorities and per capita disposable income were the top three influencing factors of RIDs.

Conclusions: TB was the key point of RIDs prevention among the three counties. The key preventable IIDs in Lu and Shifang were HFMD and other infectious diarrhea, and bacillary dysentery was the major IIDs in Yuexi. The incidence rates of RIDs was associated with the population composition, the economy and personal hygiene habits.

Keywords: Distribution characteristics; Influencing factors; Intestinal infectious diseases; Principal component regression; Respiratory infectious diseases.

Grants and funding

This study was supported by the Western Region Disaster Risk Reduction Demonstration Area Construction Project of China, UNICEF, of the project named: Disaster Risk Reduction Model Building Pilot Programme in Western China. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.