Morbidity and Mortality of Notifiable Infectious Diseases in 2015 in China

Objective To determine morbidity and mortality from notifiable infectious diseases in China in 2015. Methods Descriptive analysis was used to analyze morbidity and mortality from notifiable diseases in China in 2015. Results In 2015, the morbidity rate for national notifiable diseases was 470.35 per 100,000 population, a decrease of 7.11% compared with the average for 2012–2014. The mortality rate was 1.23 per 100,000 population, a decrease of 1.27% compared with the average for 2012–2014. The percentage of laboratory diagnoses was 38.22%, an increase of 5.32% compared with 2012–2014. The five diseases with the highest reported incidences were hand, foot, and mouth disease, other infectious diarrhea, hepatitis B, tuberculosis, and syphilis. The diseases with the highest mortality reported were AIDS, tuberculosis, and rabies. Diseases transmitted by direct contact/fecal–oral transmission accounted for the largest proportion, 49.89%, of all reported cases, followed by blood-borne/sexually transmitted diseases, respiratory transmitted diseases, and zoonotic/vector-borne diseases. Pathogenic descriptive analysis showed that viral infectious diseases accounted for 68.48% of all cases, followed by bacterial infectious diseases and zoonotic/vector-borne diseases. Conclusion Epidemics of tuberculosis, dengue fever, brucellosis, AIDS, and rabies remain public health concerns in China. In addition, the proportion of laboratory-confirmed diagnoses of notifiable disease cases was low in 2015.