Abstract:

Objective To understand epidemic status and regularity of occurrence of public health emergencies in Jilin Province for evidence in following implementation of corresponding prevention and control measures. Methods The related data on the public health emergencies reported in Jilin Province were recovered from the subsystem of Public Health Emergency Management under the Information System for Disease Prevention and Control in China from 2013 through 2022, and analyzed for the epidemiological characteristics, including event type, time and regional distribution, place of occurrence, using descriptive research method. Results A total of 3 098 public health emergencies were reported in Jilin Province from 2013 to 2022, during which 11 453 cases and 134 deaths were reported. The reporting peak of public health emergencies was from October every year to March the following year, and the number during which accounted for 83.02% (2 572/3 098) of the total reports for public health emergencies. The types of events were mainly associated with environmental events, and the number of events, incidences and deaths reported accounted for 94.19% (2 918/3 098), 58.01% (6 644/11 453) and 78.36% (105/134) of the total public health emergencies, respectively. Except for one water pollution incident, all the other environmental incidents were non-occupational carbon monoxide poisoning. The top three cities in the number of incidents were Changchun (1 865 events, 60.20%), Jilin (900 events, 29.06%) and Yanbian (249 events, 8.04%). In total, 163 events associated with infectious diseases were reported, which involved 4 148 cases and 21 deaths. The event encompassed 13 infectious diseases, among which the top three reported incidents were COVID-19 (97 events, 59.51%), chickenpox (30 events, 18.40%) and hemorrhagic fever (18 events, 11.04%). Fifty-eight events were reported in schools, of which infectious diseases were dominant (47 events,81.04%), and primary schools were the main places that emergencies occurred (29 events, 50.00%). Conclusion In the past years, the public health emergencies in Jilin Province were mainly environmental events, and peaked in winter and spring every year. The findings suggest that, according to the seasonal characteristics of public health emergencies, public publicity and education should be carried out to improve the prevention ability. Infectious diseases were the major public health emergencies in schools, mostly occurring in primary schools. The results suggest that schools should be important sites to implement corresponding prevention and control measures.

Key words: Public health emergency, Epidemiological characteristics, Jilin Province