Trends in communicable diseases in Mongolia

Abstract

This paper analyzes the state-of-the-art of infectious diseases in Mongolia over 90 years of public health in Mongolia. The situation related to infectious diseases has undergone substantial changes over 90 years. Smallpox and plague occurred frequently in pre-revolutionary Mongolia. Due to mass vaccination against smallpox, the latter was eradicated in Mongolia in 1940. Systematic health-promotion and prophylactic work against plague has resulted in stable epidemic well-being over the past many past years. The high preventive vaccination coverage rates have been achieved by widely immunizing the population in the country, which could considerably reduce the incidence of infections controlled by specific preventive means. In the past 10 years, the country has not notified diphtheria and whooping cough and the incidence of measles has stabilized at a level of 0.9-1.0 per 100,000 population. At that stage, out of the infectious diseases, viral hepatitis and HIV infection have engaged special attention. Although the incidence of hepatitis B has recently stabilized owing to vaccination; that of hepatitis A has remained high as compared to that in European and North American countries and, in the past 10 years, this rate has been 162.0-391.0 per 100,000. The first case of HIV infection in Mongolia was registered in 1992; as of 2010, the country notified not more than 83 cases, of which 21 (25.3%) cases were registered in 2010, which shows a considerable deterioration in the country's epidemiological situation. The immediate task at that stage is to build on earlier successes and to prevent the emergence and spread of infectious diseases that are absent in Mongolia.