Risk assessment of public health emergencies concerned in the mainland of China, October 2018

ObjectiveTo assess the risk of public health emergencies, both the indigenous ones and the imported ones, which might occur in the mainland of China in October 2018.MethodsAn internet based expert counsel was conducted to analyze the surveillance data of public health emergencies and priority communicable diseases in China reported through different channels, and the experts in all provincial centers for disease control and prevention attended this video conference.ResultsIt is expected that the number of public health emergencies, which might be in forms of outbreaks of varicella, hand foot and mouth disease, dengue fever, mumps, infectious diarrhea, influenza and food poisoning, reported in October would be higher than that in September. The incidence of dengue fever would be still high, although the reported case number was lower than that in last year, there were more loci of the local transmission in 2018, and the mosquito control is more difficult due to the frequent typhoons in southern China, it is still necessary to pay attention to the risk of the dengue fever epidemic lasting for a long period. The incidence of Japanese encephalitis in northern China would decline as air temperature goes down, and the incidence of food poisoning would decrease too. The risk of importation of Ebola virus disease (EVD) from the Democratic Republic of Congo into China is still low. The risk of travel related communicable diseases during the National Day vacation might be high.ConclusionClose attention should be paid to the public health risk of dengue fever, and general attention should be paid to Japanese encephalitis, food poisoning, the risk of imported EVD, and the travel related communicable diseases.