Epidemiological characteristics of natural focal and vector-borne notifiable infectious diseases in Beijing, 2009—2024

Objective To analyze the epidemiological characteristics of natural focal diseases and vector-borne notifiable infectious diseases in Beijing from 2009 to 2024.

Methods Based on the surveillance data of notifiable infectious diseases in Beijing, descriptive epidemiological methods were used to analyze the temporal, spatial, and population distribution characteristics of the diseases. Joinpoint regression model was used to evaluate the changing trends of incidence rates of the diseases.

Results A total of 3,095 cases of natural focal and vector-borne notifiable infectious diseases were reported in Beijing during 2009–2024, including 93 deaths. The top five diseases in terms of case count were brucellosis, malaria, dengue fever, hemorrhagic fever, and rabies, accounting for 94.34% of the total reported cases. The incidence of natural focal and vector-borne notifiable infectious diseases in Beijing showed a fluctuating trend of increase, decrease and increase again, with annual incidence peaks being observed during March–July and during July–October respectively. The proportion of natural focal infectious disease cases in urban areas was significantly lower than that in suburban and exurban areas (χ²=751.764, P<0.001). The cases were mainly men, those aged ≥20 years and those aged <60 years, and most cases were farmers and herdsmen, the jobless/unemployed and staff members. In terms of clinical diagnosis characteristics, 63.59% of the cases diagnosed were from different districts, and 88.14% of the cases were reported by grade III hospitals. The proportion of confirmed cases of natural focal infectious disease was lower than that of vector-borne notifiable infectious disease (χ²=38.297, P<0.001), and the interval from onset to diagnosis of natural focal infectious disease was longer than that of vector-borne notifiable infectious disease (P<0.001).

Conclusion Significant differences existed in the spatial and population distributions, as well as the diagnosis and treatment characteristics between natural focal disease and vector-borne notifiable infectious disease in Beijing from 2009 to 2024.