Epidemiology of human infection with avian influenza A(H7N9) virus in China, 2013-2017 / 中华流行病学杂志

ABSTRACT

Objective To understand the epidemiological characteristics of human infection with avian influenza A (H7N9) virus in China,and provide evidence for the prevention and control of human infection with H7N9 virus.Methods The published incidence data of human infection with H7N9 virus in China from March 2013 to April 2017 were collected.Excel 2007 software was used to perform the analysis.The characteristics of distribution of the disease,exposure history,cluster of the disease were described.Results By the end of April 2017,a total of 1 416 cases of human infection with H7N9 virus were confirmed in China,including 559 deaths,the case fatality rate was 39.5％.In 2016,the case number was lowest (127 cases),with the highest fatality rate (57.5％).The first three provinces with high case numbers were Zhejiang,Guangdong and Jiangsu.The median age of the cases was 55 years and the male to female ratio was 2.3 ∶ 1.Up to 66％ of cases had clear live poultry exposure history before illness onset,31％ of cases had unknown exposure history and only 3％ of the cases had no live poultry exposure history.There were 35 household clusters (5 in 2013,9 in 2014,6 in 2015,5 in 2016,10 in 2017),which involved 72 cases,accounting for 5％ of the total cases.Conclusions The epidemic of human infection with H7N9 virus in China during 2013-2017 had obvious seasonality and spatial distribution.There was limited family clustering.Infection cases were mostly related to poultry contact.