Spatiotemporal characteristics of seasonal influenza in mainland China

VernacularTitle:中国大陆季节性流感活动的时空分布特征
Author: Yan GAO ¹ ; Li-Qun FANG ; Yong ZHANG ; Quan QIAN ; Ya-Pin LI ; Cui-Ling XU ; Ye ZHANG ; Lei YAN ; Hua YANG ; Yan-Chen BAI ; Hong YANG ; Wu-Chun CAO ; Yue-Long SHU
Author Information

1. 中国疾病预防控制中心
Keywords: Influenza; Seasonality; Spatiotemporal distribution; Transmission
From: Chinese Journal of Epidemiology 2009;30(11):1097-1101
CountryChina
Language:Chinese
Abstract: Objective To study the spatiotemporal distribution and seasonal characteristics of influenza and to explore its transmission patterns, in the mainland of China. Methods Spatiotemporal cluster methods and spatial trend surface methods were used to analyze the influenza surveillance data. Results There were a summer peak in the south from June to August (RRpsediatric=1.31, P<0.01; RRmternel=1.74, P<0.01) and a winter peak from December to January (RRpsediatric=1.45, P<0.01; RRmternel=1.45, P<0.01) in the northern part of the country, during every epidemic season. Influenza virus in mainland China seemed to spread from the southern to the northern parts of the country, in a progressing way. Conclusion In the southern part of the country, it is more important to take prevention and control measurements on influenza from June to August but for the northern part, the key period is from December to January. It is more important to timely identify the variation of the influenza virus, in the southern part of the country.