Abstract
BackgroundDespite the considerable efforts made to address the issue of brucellosis worldwide, its prevalence in dairy products continues to be difficult to estimate and represents a key public health issue around the world today. The aim of the present study was to better understand the epidemiology of this disease in mainland China. We set out to investigate the yearly spatial distribution and possible hotspots of the disease.MethodsHuman brucellosis data from mainland China between 2007 and 2016 were collected from the China Information System for Disease Control and Prevention. A geographic information system ArcGIS10.3 (ESRI, Redlands) was used to identify potential changes in the spatial and temporal distribution of human brucellosis in mainland China during the study period. These distributions were evaluated using three-dimensional trend analysis and spatial autocorrelation analyse. A gravity-center was used to analyse the migration track of human brucellosis.ResultsA total of 399,578 cases of human brucellosis were reported during the 10-year study period. The monthly incidence of brucellosis in China demonstrates clear seasonality. Spring and summer are the peak seasons, while May is the peak month for brucellosis. Three-dimensional trend analysis suggests that brucellosis is on the rise from south to north, and that the epidemic situation in northern China is more severe. Between 2007 and 2016, the overall migration distance of the brucellosis incidence gravity-center was 906.43 km, and the direction was southwest. However, the overall gravity center of brucellosis was still in the northern part of China. In the global autocorrelation analysis, brucellosis in China demonstrated a non-random distribution between 2013 and 2014, with spatial autocorrelation (Z > 1.96, P < 0.05) and a clustering trend, while no clustering trend was found from 2007 to 2012 or from 2015 to 2016. In the local autocorrelation analysis, a Low-Low cluster phenomenon was found in the south of China in 2013 and 2014.ConclusionHuman brucellosis remains a widespread challenge, particularly in northern China. The hotspots highlight potential high-risk areas which may require special plans and resources for monitoring and controlling the disease.
Highlights
Despite the considerable efforts made to address the issue of brucellosis worldwide, its prevalence in dairy products continues to be difficult to estimate and represents a key public health issue around the world today
There are between five and six million patients who are living with brucellosis worldwide, the number of cases reported to the World Health Organization (WHO) each year is 500,000 [7,8,9,10]
A purely temporal analysis between 2007 and 2016 demonstrated that highincidence seasons of human brucellosis were the time between late spring and early summer, while the incidence was highest in May
Summary
Brucellosis, which is known as undulant fever, is one of the most common zoonoses in the world [1,2,3,4]. It is an infectious disease which can be acute or chronic. It is caused by brucella, which is a natural epidemic disease [5]. More than 170 countries and regions around the world have recorded brucellosis epidemics, accounting for approximately one-sixth to one-fifth of the world’s population [6]. The Mediterranean region as well as Asia, Central and South America are the areas with the highest incidences [11,12,13,14,15]
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