Development and application syndromic surveillance and early warning system in border area in Yunnan Province / 中华流行病学杂志

Objective: To establish a dynamic syndromic surveillance system in the border areas of Yunnan Province based on information technology, evaluate its effectiveness and timeliness in the response to common communicable disease epidemics and improve the communicable disease prevention and control in border areas. Methods: Three border counties were selected for full coverage as study areas, and dynamic surveillance for 14 symptoms and 6 syndromes were conducted in medical institutions, the daily collection of information about students' school absence in primary schools and febrile illness in inbound people at border ports were conducted in these counties from January 2016 to February 2018 to establish an early warning system based on mobile phone and computer platform for a field experimental study. Results: With syndromes of rash, influenza-like illness and the numbers of primary school absence, the most common communicable disease events, such as hand foot and mouth disease, influenza and chickenpox, can be identified 1-5 days in advance by using EARS-3C and Kulldorff time-space scanning models with high sensitivity and specificity. The system is easy to use with strong security and feasibility. All the information and the warning alerts are released in the form of interactive charts and visual maps, which can facilitate the timely response. Conclusions: This system is highly effective and easy to operate in the detection of possible outbreaks of common communicable diseases in border areas in real time, so the timely and effective intervention can be conducted to reduce the risk of local and cross-border communicable disease outbreaks. It has practical application value.

First isolation of quang binh-like virus from mosquitoes in China / 病毒学报

This study aims to investigate the distribution patterns of mosquito-borne viruses in Menghai County, Xishuangbanna Prefecture, Yunnan Province, China and to provide evidence for the prevention and control of mosquito-borne diseases. Mosquito samples were collected using mosquito lamps. Viruses were isolated from the samples by cell culture, and the isolates were identified by RT-PCR. The genomes of isolates were sequenced for phylogenetic analysis. In July 2012, a total of 1468 mosquitoes were captured in Daluo Town of Menghai County; they were divided into 32 pools, including Culex tritaeniorhynchus (28 pools, 1383 mosquitoes), Culex quinquefasciatus (2 pools, 66 mosquitoes), and Anopheles (2 pools, 19 mosquitoes). Golden hamster kidney cells (BHK-21) and Aedes albopictus cells (C6/36) were used for virus isolation. The results showed that C6/36 cells were susceptible to two isolates recovered from Culex tritaeniorhynchus (BNDL1205 and BNDL1227), with marked cytopathic effect (CPE) of cell fusion. By contrast, the two isolates could not cause CPE in BHK-21 cells. RT-PCR was performed for the two isolates using the flavivirus-specific primers FU2/cFD3, and a 800-bp amplicon was obtained from both of them. Phylogenetic analysis showed that the two isolates shared the same evolutionary branch with the Quang Binh virus (QBV) strain VN180, which had been isolated from Vietnam, with nucleotide sequence homologies of 83.4% and 82.9%, respectively. However, there existed relatively large differences in nucleotide sequence between them and other Culex flavivirus strains previously isolated in China and other regions. In light of the similarity between the two isolates and QBV, BNDL1205 and BNDL122 were referred to as Quang Binh-like virus, which were first reported in China.