OBJECTIVETo study the epidemic intensity and trend of human rabies from 1991 to 2005 among 31 provinces, metropoli and municipalities in China so as to increase the awareness of the disease.

METHODSContrastive analyses were performed and the annual publishing data by the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention were used.

RESULTSThe total number of reported cases was 14 942 from 1991 to 2005 with an annual average mortality rate as 0.080/100000. The increase of five-years mortality ratio on relative ratio with circular base of mortality rate were--66.24% (1996-2000 to 1991-1995) and 506.13% (2001-2005 to 1996-2000). When comparing incidence rates between 2000-2005 and 1991-1995, the relative ratio with fixed base increase became 104.62%.

CONCLUSIONAmong the 31 provinces, metropolis and municipalities, 27 had reported human rabies cases. The enzootic areas mainly distributed in the drainage area along the Yangtze River. The incidence rates of Guangxi, Hunan, Guizhou, Jiangxi and Guangdong were the highest.