Journal of Tropical Diseases and Parasitology ›› 2024, Vol. 22 ›› Issue (4): 208-211.doi: 10.20199/j.issn.1672-2302.2024.04.004

• SPECIAL TOPICS ON PREVENTION AND CONTROL OF DENGUE FEVER • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Seasonal characteristics of dengue fever in China: Analysis based on concentration and circular distribution approaches

GAO Guiling(), WANG Chao, YAO Chunxia()   

  1. Shanghai Songjiang District Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Shanghai 200032, China
  • Received:2024-04-09 Online:2024-08-20 Published:2024-08-30
  • Contact: YAO Chunxia, E-mail: yaochunxia1@126.com

Abstract:

Objective To understand the incidence and seasonal epidemic characteristics of dengue fever in China, so as to provide a reference for dengue fever monitoring, early warning and scientific prevention and control. Methods Data on the number of reported dengue cases and incidence rate in China from 2012 to 2021 were collected through the official website of the National Health Commission and the Data-Center of China Public Health Science. The seasonal distribution characteristics of dengue were observed using concentration and circular distribution methods. Results In total, 92 046 cases of dengue fever were reported in China from 2012 to 2021, and the annual reported incidence ranged in between 0.003/100 000 and 3.405/100 000. Dengue fever prevailed in unimodal distribution fashion. The results of concentration analysis showed that the overall M value was 0.858 from 2012 through 2021, indicating that the incidence of dengue fever was highly seasonal. The seasonality of dengue fever was not significant or weak in 2021 (M=0.130), whereas in 2014, dengue fever looked strongly seasonal (M=0.937), and appeared obvious seasonality in other years (M=0.700-0.839). The circular distribution method showed that the r value, α - value and s value were 0.857, 266.467° and 31.770°, respectively (Z=67 798.697, P<0.05). The epidemic peaked between August 24 and October 27, and the peak day was at September 25. Conclusion The incidence of dengue fever in China has strong seasonal characteristics, with the peak of the epidemic arriving at autumn. The findings suggest that attention should be paid to surveillance over the mosquitos and dengue fever alerts in autumn.

Key words: Dengue fever, Seasonality, Concentration method, Circular distribution method

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