Evaluating the importation of yellow fever cases into China in 2016 and strategies used to prevent and control the spread of the disease

Abstract

As the worst yellow fever epidemic occurred in Angola in 2016, yellow fever cases had been discovered firstly in China in the history, which raising great public concern in domestic and international societies. The epidemiological characteristics of the total eleven yellow fever cases were analyzed. The results showed that all imported cases came from Angola, and they were identified in the 11th to 15th week of 2016, 1-2 weeks after the peak of the Angolan epidemic. Eight cases had once visited the same local Chinese medicine hospital in Angola. Expect for one death, all other 10 cases had recovered after timely and proper treatment. The results suggested that although China has taken effective response to the imported epidemic of yellow fever, several problems on cases information sharing, health education were still exposed, which might also be obstacles for reducing the imported risk of other foreign infectious diseases for China. This study summarize the experiences learned from 2016, with the hope of providing experiences on prevention and control to other diseases.

Keywords

• yellow fever
• first import
• control and prevention