Analysis of health status of the population and the affecting factors after the Three Gorges Dam being used for water storage for one year

Objective The present analysis was conducted tO make a preliminary evaluation of health status of the population around the Three Gorges Dam after it was used for water storage．Methods The changes in health resources，data on birth and death as well as prevalence of infectious and endemic diseases，information about biologic medium rats and mosquitoes from surveillance，and reported data on emergency public health events in the surveillance sites around the Three Gorges Dam area were consecutively collected，and comprehensively analyzed．Results It was found that the birth rate increased by 7.16％and the deach rate decreased by 4.45％in the surveillance sites around the Three Gorges Dam area after it was used for water storage for one year．Infectious diseases occurred predominantly in sporadic form．No epidemic of plague，leptospinosis，epidemic hemorrhagic fever，malaria and acute schistosomiasis was reported from all the surveillance sites．Three cases of epidemic encephalitis B were reported from Fendu and Fengjie areas．The indoor rodents density in 2004 (1.61％)was slightly higher than that in 2003(1.21％)but significantly lower than the average level (3.94％)of the 5 years before water storage．And the out door rodents density in 2004(2.69％)was lower than that in 2003(3.55％)and the average level(4.22％)of the 5 years before water storage．The adult mosquito density in livestock stalls was lower in 2004 than in 2003 and than the average 1evel of