Epidemiology of human rabies in Wenzhou in Zhejiang, 2006-2011

Objective To understand the epidemiological characteristics of human rabies in Wenzhou, Zhejiang province and discuss the effective control measures. Methods Descriptive epidemiological analysis was conducted on the surveillance data of human rabies in Wenzhou from 2006 to 2011. Results Totally 37 human rabies cases were reported in Wenzhou during this period. The average annual incidence was 0.07/lakh and the case fatality was 100%. The cases mainly occurred in autumn and winter. The patients were aged from 5 to 77 years and farmers accounted for the highest proportion of the cases (48.65%). More cases occurred in males than in females with the ratio of 2.36:1. The wounds at grade Ⅲ accounted for 85.71%. The most common exposure site was hand (31.43%), followed by face and foot (20% for each). The average incubation period of the cases with wounds on heads was shortest (18 days). The cases receiving appropriate wound treatment, vaccination and rabies immune globulin accounted for 8.57%, 20.00% and 2.86% respectively. Conclusion It is necessary to strengthen the multi-sectoral cooperation to conduct health education about rabies, increase dog vaccination rate, standardize the performance of rabies clinics, improve rabies immunization and conduct rabies surveillance.