Management of communicable disease surveillance in China under the new situation

Objective To understand the management of communicable disease surveillance and human resources involved in all the provinces in China, and provide evidence for the further improvement of the communicable disease surveillance in China. Methods By using questionnaire, the departments of communicable disease surveillance of provincial centers for disease control and prevention(CDCs) in 31 provinces (autonomous region, municipality), including Xinjiang Production and Construction Corps were surveyed. Excel 2010 and software R (i386 3.2.2) were used for data analysis. Results The personnel engaged in communicable disease surveillance in 32 provincial CDCs were mainly aged 30~years old (42%). Among them, 47% had master's degree, 75% majored in preventive medicine and 45% had middle professional title.Except for several provincial CDCs, effective weekly monthly and annual surveillance data analysis, special analysis and feedback mechanisms have been established, but only 6 provincial CDCs conducted timely feedback of data analysis results to district medical agencies (19%). Most provincial CDCs used traditional technology and methods for surveillance data analysis, only 8 provincial CDCs implemented the automatic or semi-automatic analysis by using software, and 4 provincial CDCs conducted new technology promotion in their provinces. Twenty three provincial CDCs (72%) had requirements to send staff to China CDC for short-term training on surveillance data analysis and statistics. Conclusion The staff engaged in communicable disease surveillance management are lacking in China, and the human resources structure needs to be improved. The analysis mechanism of surveillance data has been established, but the analysis result feedback needs to be strengthened. The utilization of surveillance data and analysis technique should be improved and innovated in the future surveillance.